AMERICANS  OF  1776 

JAMES  SCHOULER 


II  III 


REESE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
Class 


AMERICANS   OF    1776 


Schouler's  History  of  the  United  States. 


NEW   AND    REVISED   EDITION. 

Vol.     I.  1783-1801.  RULE  OF  FEDERALISM 

Vol.    II.  1801-1817.  JEFFERSON  REPUBLICANS 

Vol.  III.  1817-1831.  ERA  OF  GOOD  FEELING 

Vol.  IV.  1831-1847.  WHIGS  AND  DEMOCRATS 

Vol.    V.  1847-1861.  FREE  SOIL  CONTROVERSY 

Vol.  VI.  1861-1865.  THE  CIVIL  WAR 


EIGHTY  YEARS  OF  UNION,   i  783-1865, 
being  a  Shorter  History  by  Extracts 

By  the  Same  Author : 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON  (in  the  ' '  Makers  of  America  "  series.) 

HISTORICAL  BRIEFS,  WITH  BIOGRAPHY. 
CONSTITUTIONAL  STUDIES,  STATE  AND  FEDERAL. 


AMERICANS  OF    1776. 


Americans  of  1776 


By 
JAMES    SCHOULER 


NEW   YORK 

DODD,    MEAD    AND    COMPANY 
1906 


COPYRIGHT,  1906 
BY  JAMES  SCHOULER 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  February,   1906 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  is  not  a  new  narrative  history  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  nor  a  new  arrangement  of  old  historical  materials. 
It  is  an  original  study  of  life  and  manners,  social, 
industrial  and  political,  for  the  Revolutionary  period. 
Newspapers,  magazines  and  pamphlets  of  the  period, 
old  letters  and  diaries  have  been  explored,  and  the 
results  of  a  personal  investigation  among  hidden  but 
trustworthy  matter  are  here  set  forth. 

The  substance  of  the  present  volume  comprises  occa 
sional  lectures  given  by  the  author  before  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  (1901-1905)  while  the  present 
study  was  in  progress. 

February  i,  1905. 


191188 


NOTE 

THE  following  abbreviations  are  used  in 
the  citations  of  this  volume :  M.  G.  for  Mas 
sachusetts  Gazette;  E.  G.  for  Essex  Gazette; 
N.  E.  C.  for  Nezv  England  Chronicle;  I.  C. 
for  Independent  Chronicle;  P.  G.  for  Penn 
sylvania  Gazette;  P.  C.  for  Pennsylvania 
Chronicle;  P.  J.  for  Pennsylvania  Journal; 
V.  G.  for  Virginia  Gazette. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  THIRTEEN   COLONIES   AND  THEIR   PEOPLE 

PAGE 

Narrative  of  the  Revolution  distinguished — the  dignity  of 
history — area  and  population  of  our  thirteen  colonies — 
five  leading  seaports — Canadian  provinces  of  Great  Britain 
contrasted — love  of  liberty  in  Americans — early  dis 
like  of  France — colonial  differences — provincial  ranks  and 
social  grades I 

CHAPTER  II 

FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN 

Indians  and  negroes  in  America — the  colonial  slave  trade — 
negro  freedom  on  British  home  soil — provincial  slavery 
in  1776 — newspaper  notices — white  bondage — redemp- 
tioners,  convicts,  political  prisoners  and  indentured 
servants — impressive  features  of  white  service — fugitives 
and  runaways  as  advertised — the  popular  sense  of  free 
dom  II 

CHAPTER  III 

CRIMES  AND  DISORDERS 

Vagrants  and  criminals  in  America — death  sentence  for 
felonies — branding,  burning  and  other  ignominious  pun 
ishments — the  whipping-post,  stocks  and  pillory — benefit 
of  clergy — imprisonment  for  debt — rebellious  riots — popu 
lar  resistance  to  Stamp  Act  and  taxation — plain-speaking, 
physical  infliction  and  retaliation — appeals  through  the 
local  press 23 


viii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 

BIRTHS,    MARRIAGES   AND   DEATHS 

PAGE 

Admirable  domestic  life — marriage  almost  universal — English 
law  of  wife's  coverture — marriage  infelicities  and  sepa 
ration — a  prolific  offspring — licentiousness  rare — strong 
family  ties — neighborly  assistance — death  and  funerals — 
the  lesson  to  survivors — Christian  hope  of  the  hereafter — 
cemeteries  and  burials — a  public  funeral  in  Virginia — 
graves  of  American  pioneers 35 

CHAPTER  V 

HOUSES    AND    HOMES 

Freehold  tenure  of  land  in  America — provincial  systems  of 
settlement — wild  animals  and  the  wilderness  life — trees 
and  forests — homes  and  colonial  mansions — building  ma 
terials  and  construction — parks  and  gardens — streets  and 
drainage  methods — paving,  lighting  and  watch — water 
supply — household  fuel  and  lights — style  of  equipage....  48 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE   CASUALTIES    OF    LIFE 

Accidents  and  personal  exposure — individual  nature  of  calam 
ities — carelessness  with  powder  and  firearms — news 
paper  comments — earthquakes,  tornadoes  and  storms — 
deaths  by  lightning — Franklin's  invention  and  popular 
superstition — winter  severities — dangers  by  snow  storm 
or  flood — fires  and  fire  insurance — things  lost  or  stolen — 
death  and  the  probate  advertising 60 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE   THREE    PUBLIC   VOCATIONS 

Post-office  establishment  in  America — post-riders  and  the 
mails — postal  regulations — detention  of  mails — the  Amer 
ican  inn  or  tavern — names,  signs  and  patronage — Revo 
lutionary  incidents — common  carriers  by  land  or  water — 


CONTENTS  ix 


PAGE 

stage-coaches  and  ferries — methods  of  transportation — 
stage  boats  and  sailing  traffic — baggage  in  the  eighteenth 
century — friendly  companionship  in  travel — bridges, 
turnpikes  and  ferries 73 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DRESS    AND   DIET 

Differences  of  dress  and  social  sets — fashionable  dress  of  the 
age — ceremonious  distinctions — homespun  fabrics — wigs, 
umbrellas,  spectacles,  watches,  carriages — diet  of  the 
people — abundance  of  fish  and  game — Indian  corn,  vege 
tables,  potatoes  and  orchard  fruits — excessive  liquor 
drinking — use  of  tobacco  and  snuff — table  tastes  and  man 
ners — taxed  tea  and  the  spinning  parties — contrast  of 
America  and  Europe  in  popular  comforts 86 

CHAPTER  IX 

RECREATIONS    AND   AMUSEMENTS 

Working  habits  of  the  people — rare  holidays  or  vacations — in 
door  amusements  among  persons  of  fashion — balls  and 
parties  during  the  Revolution — select  assemblies  and 
dancing  schools — musical  concerts,  vocal  and  instru 
mental — concert  manners — amateur  musicians — lectures, 
wax-works,  dwarfs,  magicians — equestrian  and  other 
exhibitions — the  American  theatre — dramatic  readings — 
general  frolics,  out-of-door  sports,  riding  parties — fire 
works  103 

CHAPTER  X 

COLONIAL  LITERATURE 

Little  leisure  for  reading — private  libraries  and  favorite 
books — pamphlets  on  religion  or  politics — literary  style  in 
vogue — American  authors — able  religious  and  political 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

writers  and  orators — Yale  and  Princeton  bards — literary 
style  and  conceits — native  essays  and  fugitive  produc 
tions — infant  manufacture  of  books — proposals  for  pub 
lishing — American  edition  of  Blackstone — annuals  and 
the  literary  almanac 121 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   COLONIAL    PRESS 

Feeble  magazine  literature — journalism  proper  and  the 
pamphlet — meagre  news — a  printer's  economies — eminent 
political  contributors — anonymous  and  unpaid  effusions 
— the  News  Letter  of  1704,  Gazettes,  etc. — Revolutionary 
devices — printers'  headquarters  for  wants — style  of  ad 
vertisement — small-sized  sheets  of  weekly  issue — sub 
scriptions  tardily  paid — delivery  by  post-riders — law  of 
libel  regarded — familiar  wood  cuts 142 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE   FINE    ARTS 

Ingenuity  and  imperfection — wood  cuts  in  the  almanacs — 
book  engravings — steel,  copper  and  the  mezzotint — pic 
ture  sales — sculpture  orders  for  London — Washington's 
experience  at  Mount  Vernon — Protestantism  and  the 
masters — West,  Copley  and  their  successors — architecture 
and  music — Jefferson's  love  of  music 164 

CHAPTER  XIII 

PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE 

Christian  philanthropy — organized  charities — contributions  to 
Boston's  distress — hospitals  in  the  colonies — almshotises 
and  pauper  treatment — family  support — penal  discipline 
and  the  prisons — diseases  of  different  epochs — scarcity  of 
surgeons — medical  theories  and  medicines — favorite  min 
eral  springs — Washington's  visit  as  an  invalid 174 


CONTENTS  xi 


CHAPTER  XIV 

COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION 

PAGE 

Education  of  the  whole  people — Europe  and  America — New 
England's  public  school  system — the  middle  and  south 
ern  colonies — religion  in  education — home  influences — 
the  free  or  grammar  school  in  America — preparatory 
annex  of  the  college — Franklin  and  Philadelphia's 
academy — English  rudiments  essential — night  schools — 
the  district  school  of  the  people — private  instruction  in 
the  colonies — strenuous  efforts  for  self-improvement — 
co-education  and  schools  for  young  ladies — relation  of 
the  sexes  for  life's  companionship — early  simplicity  in 
the  studies 194 


CHAPTER  XV 

COLLEGES   AND   THE    HIGHER   EDUCATION 

Leading  colleges  of  colonial  times:  Harvard,  Yale  and  Wil 
liam  and  Mary — five  later  colleges  described — academic 
degrees  in  course — honorary  doctorates  uncommon — 
Harvard's  Revolutionary  example — college  benefactions 
solicited — Hancock  and  other  professorships — emulation 
of  Harvard  and  Yale — scientific  research — courses  of 
study — college  rules  and  discipline — subordination  of 
freshmen — recreation  and  sports — Commencement  cele 
brations — academic  pomp  and  ceremony 216 

CHAPTER  XVI 

RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES 

The  Puritan  Sabbath — French  Sunday  observances  con 
trasted — "Merrie  England"  no  more — family  devotion — 
the  Sunday  meeting — colonial  church  establishments — 
Protestant  sects  paramount — Roman  Catholic  Church 
feeble — Episcopal  clergy  without  a  bishop — Wesley, 
Whitefield  and  Edwards — influence  of  the  local  ministers 
— New  England,  New  York  and  Virginia  in  contrast — 


xii  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

political  preaching — colonial  polity  among  the  churches 
— calendar  observances — colonial  houses  of  worship  and 
their  functions 237 

CHAPTER  XVII 

LIBRARIES     AND     CLUBS 

Libraries,  public  and  private,  in  the  colonies — subscription 
and  circulating  libraries — the  library  as  an  educator — 
principle  of  club  fellowship — no  club  houses  thus  early 
— meetings  at  an  inn  or  in  private  houses — fishing,  hunt 
ing  and  sporting  clubs — Washington's  club  connections — 
Philadelphia's  Philosophical  Society — other  learned  so 
cieties  in  the  colonies — Tammany  and  the  popular  frater 
nities — Freemasonry — Sons  of  Liberty  and  political  so 
cieties  255 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

INDUSTRIAL   PURSUITS 

Industrial  conditions  in  a  new  country — agriculture  predomi 
nant  at  the  Revolution — tenure  of  land — mining,  fishing 
and  hunting — commerce  with  British  capital — trade, 
wholesale  and  retail — auctions  and  private  sales — simple 
modes  of  business — credit,  cash  or  barter — signs  and  lo 
cations — shops  and  dwellings  combined — domestic  asso 
ciation  of  pursuits — the  learned  professions — bankers, 
brokers,  etc. — individuals  or  partners — little  or  no  cor 
porate  association — progress  in  American  manufactures 
— British  restrictions — the  non-importation  leagues  and 
home  industries 267 

CHAPTER  XIX 

PROVINCIAL   POLITICS 

Political  party  divisions— colonial  restraints  upon  voting 
rights — representatives  and  their  constituencies — aristo 
cratic  influence — oral  voting  and  the  ballot  innovation — 
the  town  meeting  and  local  self-government—political 
conference— local  or  legislative  caucus 288 


CONTENTS  xiii 


CHAPTER  XX 

SYMPTOMS    OF  INDEPENDENCE 

PAGE 

Provincial  distinctions — the  New  England  ''Yankee,"  etc. — 
Atlantic  settlements — the  Ohio  country — colonial  causes 
of  Revolution — British  colonial  traits — America's  com 
posite  population — class  distinctions  in  America — 
prophecies  of  independence  and  future  greatness — Lord 
Kames  and  Franklin — indifference  or  covetousness  abroad 
— dangers  in  ruling  distant  dependencies — Great  Britain's 
error  299 


AMERICANS 

of  1776 

I 

THE   THIRTEEN    COLONIES    AND    THEIR    PEOPLE 

THE  glorious  age  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle 
for  independence  has  been  well  explored  for 
setting  forth  the  main  incidents  of  that  heroic 
strife  and  the  illustrious  deeds  of  its  leaders,  civil  and 
military.  But  posterity  as  yet  knows  little  of  the 
American  people  themselves  of  that  famous  age.  Some 
thing  has  been  sacrificed  in  the  review — too  much, 
perhaps — to  what  may  be  called  the  dignity  of  history ; 
and  historians  of  the  Revolution,  led  by  the  venerated 
Bancroft,  have  not  only,  as  they  should  have  done, 
given  us  a  scholarly  narrative  of  the  chief  events 
shaped  out  by  those  who  directed  from  the  heights, 
but  there  have  mainly  rested.  Macaulay  in  his  day 
took  strong  issue  against  such  views  of  public  narra 
tion.  And  our  own  historian,  the  late  Francis  Park- 
man,  with  one  of  those  strong  expletives  character 
istic  of  him,  used  to  condemn,  so  his  biographer  tells 
us,  all  such  over-devotion  to  historical  dignity. 
"Straws,"  he  would  say,  "are  often  the  best  material."1 
After  his  incisive  comment,  in  which  I  strongly  con 
cur,  save  for  the  impolite  expression,  I  purpose  setting 
forth  in  these  chapters  some  recondite  material  gained 
Vparnham's  Parkman. 


AMERICANS  OF  1776 


from  miscellaneous  but  (as  should  always  be  the  case) 
wholly  trustworthy  sources,  in  the  hope  of  bringing 
out  some  features  of  an  heroic  age  and  its  people, 
which  should  interest  posterity  and  yet  are  unfamiliar 
to  us;  and  I  leave  in  other  respects  the  grand  pano 
rama  of  men  and  events  in  the  Revolutionary  era  as 
former  historians  have  so  faithfully  described  it. 


Looking  back,  then,  through  the  vista  of  nearly  a 
century  and  a  half,  we  see  thirteen  subject  colonies 
planted  successively  on  our  North- Atlantic  coast;  each 
population  tending  westward  into  the  wilderness  from 
its  landing  point,  and  yet  gazing  filially  eastward 
toward  the  land  of  its  origin,  keeping  close  to  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  and  to  the  courses  of  those  tribu 
tary  streams  and  channels  which  alone  in  those  earlier 
days  could  support  a  genuine  inland  commerce.  Three 
million  and  twenty  thousand  souls  this  whole  colonial 
population  was  roughly  reckoned  at  by  the  first  Conti 
nental  Congress  of  1774;  but  this,  however,  without 
counting  Georgia,  whose  delegates  did  not  appear  until 
Congress  reassembled  in  1775,  when  the  style  was  at 
length  fully  assumed  of  "the  thirteen  United  Colonies 
of  America."1  "Three  millions  of  people,  armed  in 
the  holy  cause  of  liberty,"  was  the  eloquent  exaggera 
tion  of  Patrick  Henry,  in  his  immortal  harangue;  but 
to  speak  more  literally,  those  capable  at  the  outset  of 
bearing  arms,  out  of  so  large  an  aggregate  of  whites 
and  blacks,  young  and  old,  men  and  women,  bond  and 
free,  numbered  more  nearly  600,000  freemen.  The 
most  populous  State  or  colony  of  the  whole  thirteen 
was  Virginia,  earliest  settled  of  them  all ;  next  in  num- 
1i  Am.  Arch.,  4th  series,  396. 


THE  THIRTEEN   COLONIES  3 

bers  followed  Massachusetts,  which  in  that  era  included 
our  extreme  eastern  province,  known  as  Maine ;  Penn 
sylvania  (with  the  Delaware  counties)  stood  third; 
while  New  York,  though  progressive  and  promising 
already,  was  surpassed  in  population  by  both  Maryland 
and  North  Carolina. 

America  possessed,  when  the  struggle  of  these 
thirteen  united  colonies  began  in  earnest,  five  leading 
centres  of  population  (all  seaports) — Philadelphia, 
New  York,  Boston,  Charleston,  and  Baltimore.  All 
the  rest  of  her  inhabitants — and  much  the  larger  part 
of  them — were  scattered  about  in  smaller  communi 
ties;  each  distinct  for  local  self-government,  with  its 
town  meeting  throughout  New  England,  but  with 
county  units  rather  in  the  Middle  section  and  the  South. 
There  was,  popularly  speaking,  no  West.  Were  the 
combined  populations  of  our  present  Philadelphia  and 
Chicago2  transformed,  soul  for  soul,  into  men,  women 
and  children  of  America's  united  colonies  of  1774,  the 
total  aggregate  of  that  former  era  would  be  very 
nearly  reproduced.  Or  were  that  transformation  to 
take  place,  instead,  from  our  present  metropolis  of 
Greater  New  York,  some  four  hundred  thousand  of 
that  city's  municipal  aggregate  of  1900  would  be  left 
unchanged.  The  people  of  the  present  State  of  Texas 
alone  number  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  by  our 
latest  census,  to  reconstitute  and  replace  America's 

JThe  basis  of  this  first  Congressional  estimate  of  population 
is  not  easily  determined.  British  Boards  of  Trade  had  made 
earlier  computations,  and  certainly  from  time  to  time,  in  various 
provinces,  a  local  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  had  been 
officially  undertaken.  Thus  Massachusetts  ordered  a  census  in 
1765,  as  also  in  1776,  both  of  which  required  that  Indians,  negroes, 
and  mulattoes  should  be  reckoned  apart  from  the  rest. 

2See  census  of  1900. 


AMERICANS  OF  1776 


whole  colonial  population  as  it  existed  in  1774.  Phila 
delphia  itself,  the  chief  civic  seat  of  all  America,  had 
that  year  scarcely  more  inhabitants  than  Oshkosh,  Wis 
consin,  or  Jacksonville, Florida, by  our  latest  count;  and 
fewer,  considerably,  than  now  inhabit  Canton,  Ohio, 
the  home  and  final  resting  place  of  our  late  President 
McKinley. 


To  utterly  subdue  a  rebellious  people,  devoted  to 
local  home  life  and  home  rule,  and  at  the  same  time 
thinly  dispersed  over  so  broad  an  area,  was  not  easy. 
Yet  the  "old  thirteen"  were  not  the  only  American 
jewels  of  the  British  Crown.  England  had  other  colo 
nies  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  that  never  made  cause 
with  us.  A  map  of  "the  glorious  British  Empire," 
published  and  sold  in  our  leading  continental  towns 
in  1769,  pictured  eighteen  American  provinces,  stretch 
ing  southwestward  from  the  River  St.  Lawrence  to 
the  Mississippi,  and  including  the  whole  of  Canada; 
all  this,  too,  without  reckoning  British  islands  of  the 
West  Indies.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  our  own  thirteen 
colonies,  when  uniting  for  resistance,  tried  to  draw 
British  Canada  to  their  cause ;  and  the  Articles  of  Con 
federation  show  our  Continental  Congress  alluring,  if 
possible,  those  more  northerly  provinces  to  our  per 
petual  league.  But  there  were  good  reasons  why  this 
should  not  be.  Canada  had  lately  been  conquered  from 
France.  Standing  armies  were  a  familiar  incident  of 
both  British  and  French  occupation  at  the  St.  Law 
rence,  while  here  they  appeared  rather  as  a  new  and 
startling  menace  to  the  people.  Local  legislatures,  too, 
of  at  least  a  single  house,  chartered  privileges,  partial 
self-government  had  long  been  largely  enjoyed  in  these 


THE   THIRTEEN    COLONIES  5 

thirteen  colonies,  under  a  home  policy  of  easy  neglect. 
Hence  opposition  flamed  at  once  when  Parliament 
asserted  here  a  sovereign  right  to  tax;  but  in  the 
Canadian  provinces  it  had  been  quite  otherwise.  Our 
own  America,  too,  was  strongly  Anglo-Saxon,  in 
tensely  Protestant;  so  much  so,  that  the  tolerance 
shown  by  the  British  Crown  and  Parliament  to  these 
alien  French  subjects  of  Montreal  and  Quebec  when 
they  came  under  the  yoke  was  a  cause  of  offence  and 
provocation  to  our  own  inhabitants,  though  just  and 
politic  in  itself.  Great  here  was  the  indignation  be 
cause  those  French  colonists  in  a  region  adjacent  to 
Protestant  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  were 
allowed  their  own  French  laws  and  the  Roman  Catho 
lic  religion  to  live  under  as  before ;  indeed,  in  the  Con 
tinental  Congress  of  1774  we  see  this  "favor  to 
Popery"  among  the  complaints  clearly  specified  in 
America's  first  united  remonstrance  to  the  King. 


Americans — historical  Americans  of  the  age  we  are 
describing — though  rude,  perhaps,  as  a  people,  loved 
liberty.  In  the  rugged  verse  of  one  of  their  own  crude 
poets  of  1 772  : 

"The  freeborn  Americans,  generous  and  wise, 
Hate  chains,  but  do  not  government  despise. 
Rights  of  the  Crown,  tributes  and  taxes,  they, 
When  rightfully  exacted,   freely  pay. 
Force  they  abhor,  and  wrong  they  scorn  to  bear, 
More  guided   by  their  judgment   than  their   fear. 
******* 

Let   France   grow   proud   beneath   the   tyrant's   lust, 
While  the  racked  people  crawl  and  lick  the  dust; 
The  manly  genius  of  America  disdains 
All  tinsel  slavery  or  golden  chains."1 

aP.  J.,  Nov.,  1772. 


AMERICANS  OF  1776 


This  fling  at  France,  by  the  way,  was  characteristic 
of  that  earlier  date.  For  in  our  thirteen  provinces,  still 
nursing  the  animosities  of  the  late  frontier  war  which 
had  ended  with  Wolfe's  famous  victory  on  the  heights 
of  Abraham,  it  was  the  popular  notion  that  "the  Pope 
and  Devil  were  inseparably  connected  with  French 
faith,  French  alliance,  and  French  commerce;"  and  it 
took  the  exigency  of  our  new  struggle  for  political 
self-existence,  ripening  into  a  league  against  the  mother 
country  with  our  late  enemy,  to  soften  that  impression. 

Colonies  are  a  crown  to  the  parent  country  only 
when  bound  in  filial  ties  of  race,  lineage,  and  affection, 
under  a  just  and  liberal  supervision  and  discipline. 
Such  colonies  were  fostered  in  the  ancient  time  by 
Greece,  and  as  Thucydides  has  said  of  them,  "colonies 
were  as  free  as  mother  cities,  though  less  reverently 
mentioned  because  of  their  dependence."  Some  have 
asserted  that  it  was  a  life  necessity  for  our  thirteen 
colonies  to  become  independent ;  and  looking  back  now 
through  the  vista  of  a  century  and  a  half,  we  may  well 
believe  it;  notwithstanding  our  ancestors  proclaimed 
at  the  outset  that  no  thought  of  separation  from  Great 
Britain  had  ever  been  cherished  by  them  until  the 
despotic  policy  of  making  them  dumb  tributaries 
against  their  consent  was  entered  upon  by  the  King 
and  Parliament. 


"Everything  which  is,  partakes  of  that  which  has 
been" — this  was  a  favorite  postulate  of  that  sprightly 
and  gallant  Frenchman,  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux, 
whose  book  of  travels  during  1780-82  furnishes  the 
first  real  trustworthy  record  of  life  in  the  new  United 
States  of  America,  as  jotted  down  by  a  European 


THE  THIRTEEN   COLONIES  7 

sojourner.  That  acute  observer  notes,  first  of  all,  the 
fact  that  while  all  these  American  commonwealths, 
now  practically  unloosed  from  the  British  yoke,  re 
sembled  one  another  in  being  democratic  or  repre 
sentative  in  cast,  yet  traces  of  the  original  character  of 
each  separate  colony  still  existed;  and  hence  that  the 
thirteen  States  differed  somewhat  in  opinions  and 
habits.  Colonial  society,  while  loyal,  is  apt  to  reflect, 
with  however  faint  an  image,  the  prevalent  ceremonies, 
the  passing  fashions  and  tastes,  of  the  parent  country ; 
and  a  people  brought  up  in  allegiance  to  a  British  sov 
ereign  must  have  transformed  themselves  but  slowly, 
even  if  surely,  into  a  democracy.  Reverence  for  Euro 
pean  institutions  and  traditions — a  formal  reverence 
at  least — stamped  these  colonies  from  the  outset;  and 
class  distinctions  were  everywhere  accepted  as  part  of 
the  established  order  of  things. 

When  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed,  our  provincial 
assemblies  vied  with  one  another  in  humble  thanks 
to  the  throne  for  its  gracious  assent,  voting  heroic 
statues  to  George  III.  and  the  Earl  of  Chatham  alike. 
Observe,  much  later,  the  petition  of  our  first  Continen 
tal  Congress,  wrhich  besought  a  gracious  answer  from 
the  King,  and  wished  him  a  long  and  glorious  reign; 
see  how  his  sovereign  regard  is  dutifully  invoked  by 
these  distant  subjects,  as  against  the  wrongs  assumed 
to  have  been  perpetrated  by  his  agents,  civil  and  mili 
tary,  and  by  Parliament.  Thus  far,  it  truly  seemed, 
the  King  could  do  no  wrong.  It  was  only  when  the 
defiant  instrument  of  Independence  was  published, 
nearly  two  years  later,  that  our  representatives  spoke 
through  their  Congress  to  the  monarch  as  to  a  fellow- 
mortal,  and  drew  their  indictment  against  George  III. 
himself,  as  responsible  author  of  all  the  wrongs  that 


8  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

had  forced  us  to  fight  for  freedom.  During  all  those 
trying  years  which  preceded  collision  and  bloodshed, 
our  colonists  as  a  whole  had  bent  with  dutiful  homage 
at  the  footstool  of  royalty. 

The  ceremonious  forms  and  expressions  usual  at 
Westminster  were  familiar  here,  in  the  press  and  in 
common  speech,  and  were  imitated,  withal,  in  official 
intercourse  with  the  King's  governors  and  vicegerents. 
Men  prominent  in  Great  Britain,  members  of  the  no 
bility,  had  the  honor  to  kiss  the  hand  of  his  Majesty— 
the  high  favor  of  an  interview  with  their  most  gracious 
sovereign.  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  in  Massa 
chusetts  Bay  or  elsewhere,  was  pleased  to  prorogue  the 
great  and  general  court  or  assembly  of  the  province. 
On  the  birthday  anniversary  of  the  reigning  King  or 
his  Queen,  and  on  the  coronation  anniversary  besides, 
our  colonial  gentry  at  the  leading  capitals,  and  mem 
bers  of  the  honorable  legislature,  would  gather  for  a 
banquet  and  celebration,  under  patronage  of  the  Crown 
officials;  and  toasts  were  drunk,  framed  sedulously  in 
the  language  of  allegiance,  leading  off  with  his 
Majesty,  and  next  the  Queen  and  royal  family.  Even 
by  the  time  that  our  Sons  of  Liberty  had  ceased  offer 
ing  dutiful  toasts  on  such  occasions,  British  army  and 
navy  officers  stationed  in  our  forts  would  join  civilians 
of  the  Crown  and  good  Tory  citizens  in  setting  the 
pitch  of  loyalty. 

Titles  of  nobility  had  not  strongly  prevailed  on  this 
side  of  the  ocean;  yet  the  colonial  press  was  full  of 
London  tattle  and  gossip,  and  scandals  were  reprinted 
touching  certain  peers  and  persons  of  quality,  whose 
title  might  be  denoted  by  a  dash  between  consonants, 
where  the  printer  meant  to  avoid  prosecution  and  yet 
to  identify  the  individuals.  Civil  officers  in  these  colo- 


THE  THIRTEEN   COLONIES  9 

nies,  and  landholders  besides,  held  posts  and  titular 
distinctions  from  abroad  which  our  people  dutifully 
recognized.  Peers  of  the  realm  sojourned  in  America, 
now  and  then,  officially  or  otherwise. 

Even  aside  from  a  peerage,  Americans  had  ranks 
and  social  grades  of  their  own,  notwithstanding  the 
strong  approach  to  political  equality  in  so  many  prov 
inces.  The  Virginia  "Tuckahoes"  of  the  tidewater 
region  used  in  the  winter  to  flock  to  Williamsburg — 
"that  toy  capital,"  as  one  has  called  it — for  the  choice 
dissipations  of  a  viceregal  court;  and  between  mean 
whites  of  the  South  and  plantation  owners,  the  social 
barrier  was  very  great.  In  the  simplest  New  England 
towns,  where  all  congenial  inhabitants  came  much  into 
friendly  contact,  and  joined  in  congregational  worship 
and  public  discussions,  the  type  of  a  republic  was  much 
like  that  of  which  Milton  had  approved  for  the  English 
Commonwealth : 

"...  Orders  and  degrees 
Jar  not  with  liberty  but  well  consist." 

Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  were  great  exem 
plars  of  ceremonial  etiquette,  and  long  continued  so,  as 
inherited  forms  of  routine  and  processional  pro 
grammes  still  remind  us.  Both  at  Harvard  and  Yale, 
college  students  were  long  arranged  in  the  class  lists 
according  to  their  family  consequence.  Even  our 
Revolutionary  press  indulged  the  prevalent  taste  of 
pompously  announcing  great  public  characters;  thus, 
in  1776,  "arrived  in  Boston  from  Philadelphia,  that 
most  worthy  and  patriotic  gentleman,  the  Hon.  Samuel 
Adams,  Esq.,  a  member  of  that  august  and  united  body, 
the  right  honorable  the  Continental  Congress."1 

Aside,  indeed,  from  the  British  official  set  in  these 
*N.  E.  C. 


to  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

colonies,  we  see  much  nice  discrimination  used  between 
"Mr.,"  "Esq.,"  "Captain,"  and  the  like;  "Honorable" 
being  the  appropriate  prefix,  and  not  superfluous,  where 
one  had  served  in  the  legislature;  while  officers  chosen 
in  town  meeting  were  described  with  one  such  title 
or  another.  "Deacon,"  though  in  common  use,  served 
a  less  secular  purpose.  One  often  finds,  to  this  very 
day,  more  strife  and  heartburning  in  adjusting  the 
claims  of  petty  distinctions  like  these,  than  over  the 
precedence  of  dukes  or  marquises ;  for  the  little  things 
of  life  seem  great  to  little  men.  Colonial  legislators 
and  writers  for  the  press  did  not  scruple  to  distinguish, 
in  their  public  expressions,  those  of  good  family,  or  the 
upper  class,  from  "the  lower  orders  of  the  people."  In 
one  of  our  chief  seaports,  in  1766,  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day,  according  to  newspaper  report,  a  number  of  Irish 
gentlemen  sat  down  to  a  dinner  of  roast  beef  and  claret, 
and  celebrated  the  occasion  as  loyal  and  patriotic 
Britons,  "with  decent  mirth;"  while  at  the  same  time 
a  number  of  Irish  "of  the  lower  order"  dined  at  the 
same  inn,  in  an  apartment  by  themselves;  and  "they, 
too,"  it  is  added,  "were  orderly." 

Pepys,  in  his  inimitable  Diary,  discourses  very 
frankly  of  periwigs,  laces  and  fine  velvet  suits,  such 
as  men  rising  in  public  station,  like  himself,  donned 
for  distinction  from  the  vulgar ;  and  he  tells  how,  when 
he  and  his  friends  entered  a  country  church  on  the 
Lord's  day,  the  rustics  all  stood  up  and  the  clergyman 
began  his  exhortation  from  the  prayer  book,  "Right 
worshipful  and  dearly  beloved  brethren."  That  typi 
fied  England  when  Charles  II.  came  to  the  throne. 
American  social  life  was  much  like  that  in  the  quiet 
English  towns;  and  change  came  slowly,  here  or 
abroad,  in  such  respects,  during  the  century  which  pre 
ceded  our  Revolution. 


II 

FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN 

INDIANS  made  no  great  figure  in  our  colonial  life 
after  the  French  war  was  over.  Fresh  outbreaks 
were  feared  among  the  copper-colored,  and  com 
missioners  for  the  Crown  in  America  made  pacifying 
treaties  with  various  native  tribes.  Our  aborigines  had 
been  much  injured  in  morals  by  the  white  man's  strong 
drink,  but  their  indocile  disposition  saved  them  at  all 
events  from  enslavement.  Negroes,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  "of  God's  image  carved  in  ebony,"  were  held  to 
bondage,  through  all  these  thirteen  colonies;  and  after 
South  Carolina's  repeal,  in  1768,  of  a  prohibitory  tax 
upon  their  importation,  the  slave  trade  from  the  Guinea 
coast  found  a  favorite  port  in  sunny  Charleston,  whose 
rice  and  indigo  were  choice  staples  for  a  thick-skinned 
race  to  sweat  upon.  A  press  of  1765  mentions  that  in 
course  of  the  eight  months  previous  to  July  of  that  year, 
5082  negroes  had  been  brought  for  sale  into  Charleston 
port,  with  half  that  number  of  hogsheads  of  rum ;  and 
the  rum  and  negro  traffic  went  much  together.  More 
blacks,  said  the  press  of  1773,  had  been  imported  there 
for  sale  than  ever  before  in  a  single  month,  and  were 
sold  profitably. 

For  more  than  fifty  years  the  inhuman  trade,  once 
fully  revealed  with  all  its  horrors  to  civilized  Europe, 
had  been  denounced  by  some  of  the  ablest  and  most 
influential  of  home  writers  and  moralists;  but  Parlia- 


12  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ment  and  the  ministry  catered  to  the  commercial  greed 
of  London,  and  the  traffic  went  on  briskly,  as  before, 
blacks  on  the  coast  of  Africa  being  taken  in  barter  for 
the  manufactures  and  merchandise  of  various  Euro 
pean  countries.  More  indirectly,  slaves  were  brought 
over  to  America  from  the  West  Indies,  where  the 
culture  of  coffee  and  sugar  kept  them  in  brisk  demand. 
The  Pennsylvania  Assembly  tried  to  discourage  the 
slave  trade  in  that  province  by  imposing  a  capitation 
tax,  but  the  Crown  would  not  approve  the  statute. 

Doubtless  in  fostering  this  traffic  our  colonists  took 
a  large  share  of  the  blame,  as  their  descendants  have 
borne  the  full  force  of  the  penalty.  Colonial  merchants 
fitted  out  vessels  and  embarked  with  enterprise  in  the 
trade;  and,  whatever  might  have  been  the  casual  pro 
test,  silence  or  counter-argument  on  this  continent  en 
couraged  the  system  to  continue.  Some,  to  be  sure, 
protested  manfully  in  the  local  press.1  But  against 
such,  other  Americans  took  boldly  the  cudgels,  adducing 
in  defence  of  the  institution  some  of  those  arguments 
which  became  hackneyed  and  trite  in  our  later  century 
of  irrepressible  conflict;  while  one,  who  styled  himself 
"a  Southern  man,"  showed  in  a  Philadelphia  news 
paper,  by  a  series  of  ingenious  syllogisms,  that  negroes 
had  no  souls.2 

Emancipation  on  the  parent  soil  of  Great  Britain  was 
another  matter,  however,  and  there  a  liberal  home 
sentiment  might  have  its  way  without  interrupting  the 
imports  or  imperilling  the  wealth  drawn  from  these 

laSlave  trading,"  writes  a  son  of  Boston,  "is  the  abominable 
thing  that  the  soul  of  the  Lord  hateth;"  and  in  1772,  we  see  a 
Philadelphian  inveighing  against  the  system  in  a  pamphlet  en 
titled  "A  mite  cast  into  the  treasury — or  observations  on  slave 
keeping." 

2P.  G.,   1769. 


FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN          13 

distant  dependencies  beyond  the  seas.  It  was  in  June, 
1772,  and  only  three  years  before  Bunker's  Hill,  that 
"the  great  negro  case"  came  up  at  the  English  King's 
Bench  for  trial  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  where  Lord 
Mansfield  pronounced  his  memorable  decision  that  the 
slave,  Somerset,  who  had  been  brought  to  England  by 
his  master  from  an  American  colony,  was  thereby  freed. 
Released  in  the  court  room  amid  loud  applause,  Somer 
set,  with  others  of  his  complexion  who  had  attended 
the  trial,  suppressed  all  signs  of  extravagant  joy,  and 
bowed  reverently  to  the  Chief  Justice  and  assembled 
members  of  the  bar  while  withdrawing  from  the  court 
room,  overawed ;  but  two  hundred  British  negroes  with 
their  ladies  soon  celebrated  at  a  London  inn,  with  a 
dinner  and  ball,  the  personal  triumph  of  their  brother 
from  the  plantations.  It  was  to  this  famous  case,  and 
to  the  principle  of  "universal  emancipation"  which  it  so 
far  established,  that  Curran,  the  Irish  advocate,  alluded 
in  1794,  in  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  impassioned 
outbursts  of  oratory  to  be  found  in  our  mother  tongue. 
Yet  why  should  the  soil  of  the  British  Isle  itself  be 
deemed  thus  sacred,  when  British  domains  beyond  the 
sea  were  willingly  polluted  by  a  system  of  bondage? 
Lord  Mansfield's  decision,  so  the  London  press  pre 
dicted  at  the  time,  would  make  greater  ferment  in 
America  than  the  Stamp  Act  itself,  and  most  of  all  in 
the  British  West  Indies,  where  now  slaves  were  the 
chief  chattel  property.  But  such  was  not  the  outcome ; 
and  in  our  thirteen  colonies,  though  a  sense  of  the  un 
righteousness  of  slavery  deepened  with  united  efforts 
made  for  their  own  independence  by  the  master  race, 
that  institution  remained  practically  undisturbed,  on 
the  whole,  while  Revolution  lasted.  Massachusetts, 
solitary  and  alone  of  these  commonwealths,  shook  off 


14  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  curse  by  a  determined  effort,  and  deduced  in  1783 
from  her  own  new  State  constitution  and  declaration 
of  rights  the  boon  for  all  of  human  freedom.1 

That  slavery  practically  existed  in  all  America  be 
fore  and  even  after  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  is  plain  from 
contemporary  notices  in  the  local  press.  "Negro  fel 
low"  or  "mulatto  fellow"  was  the  common  contempt 
uous.  expression  for  persons  of  this  race,  North  or 
South,  when  published  as  runaways  or  as  the  subjects 
of  merchandise.  "To  be  sold,  a  tall,  likely,  straight- 
limbed  negro  of  twenty-four;"  "a  likely  negro  boy  of 
seven;"  "a  negro  wench  about  nine  years  old;"  "a 
negro  woman  with  a  fine  child  three  months  old  ;"  "two 
negro  girls  of  sixteen  for  sale  cheap"  —  such  are  among 
the  current  announcements  in  Philadelphia  or  Boston 
papers  of  that  era.  Sometimes  we  see  negroes  offered 
for  sale  on  an  execution  against  the  master  ;  or  to  close 
out  an  estate,  as  where  among  the  assets  offered  by  a 
Massachusetts  executor  in  1765  were  two  negro  men, 
a  negro  woman  and  a  mackerel  sloop.  A  sale  "on 


*It  seems  that  in  October,  1773,  a  slave  of  the  Massachusetts 
province,  in  Newburyport,  sued  his  master  in  damages  for  detain 
ing  him  in  slavery.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  in  his  favor, 
and  the  master  appealed  the  case.  M.  G.,  1773.  But  revolt, 
revolution  and  the  disruption  of  provincial  government  so©n  fol 
lowed  ;  nor  was  it  until  1781-83,  when  other  test  cases  came  up, 
of  which  the  record  has  been  preserved,  that  the  Supreme  Court 
of  that  now  independent  commonwealth  decided  that  —  however 
it  might  have  been  while  Massachusetts  remained  a  royal  prov 
ince  —  slavery  had  not  now  on  that  soil  a  legal  existence.  See 
5  Bane.  U.  S.  (last  ed.),  418.  In  1776-77,  in  Massachusetts,  as 
I  gather  from  the  newspaper  advertisements,  negroes  were  some 
times  offered  publicly  by  their  masters  for  their  board  and  keep. 
After  our  Revolution  and  the  treaty  of  peace,  other  Northern 
States  took  measures  for  local  emancipation,  by  gradual  means 
or  otherwise;  the  New  York  statute  dating  1785.  2  Fiske's  Dutch 
and  Quaker  Colonies,  326. 


FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN          15 

trial"  we  see  announced  of  "a  likely  young  negro 
woman,  a  negro  cook,  who  can  make  jellies,  puddings, 
and  whipped  syllabubs."  And  again,  sardonically,  "to 
be  sold  very  cheap  for  cash,  a  sprightly,  clean  and 
healthy  negro  woman,  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
possessed  of  every  domestic  quality  except  taciturnity, 
which  is  the  reason  for  disposing  of  her."1 

It  was  not  uncommon  in  these  years  to  sell  off  a 
slave  for  the  avowed  reason,  not  of  his  fault,  but  the 
want  of  work  for  him.  Yet  other  and  more  personal 
reasons  might  be  alleged.  'To  be  sold  or  exchanged 
for  a  negro  girl,  a  strong  and  healthy  man  about 
twenty ;  the  only  reason  for  disposing  of  him,  his  habit 
of  being  out  at  night."  "Negro  crimes  are  many," 
complained  a  Boston  paper  in  1766,  "and  yet  we  still 
keep  bringing  in  those  creatures  from  Guinea;  scarce 
one  in  a  hundred  of  them  good  for  anything."  In 
various  New  England  towns  we  see  these  servants  out 
and  about  the  streets  and  disposed  to  noise  and  mis 
chief  in  the  evenings — so  much  so  that  the  selectmen 
would  issue  strict  orders  to  the  watchmen  to  take  up 
all  such  negro,  Indian  or  mulatto  slaves  as  were  found 
on  the  streets  after  9  P.M.,  unless  they  carried  lanterns 
with  lighted  candles  and  could  give  a  good  account  for 
being  out.2  In  1741,  various  incendiary  fires  were 
charged  in  New  York's  metropolis  as  negro  plots,  and 
while  popular  excitement  lasted  that  race  suffered 
vicariously  for  the  suspicion. 

All  the  items  here  quoted  are  from  old  files  of  North 
ern  newspapers,  chiefly  those  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Massachusetts,  during  ten  years  down  to  and  inclusive 
of  1776;  and  many  more  like  extracts  might  be  made. 

aM.  G.,  1765,  1768,  1771,  1775;  P.  G.,  1772. 
2M.  G.,  1765. 


16  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

So  far  as  a  Southern  press  existed  thus  early,  a  con 
dition  of  slave  traffic  and  slave  labor  still  more  repulsive 
was  perhaps  revealed;  but  while  negroes  were  in  the 
greatest  demand  for  plantation  life  and  the  raising  of 
great  staples,  their  employment  in  Northern  colonies 
was  rather  as  menials  and  for  petty  farming  and  me 
chanical  work,  and  of  course  it  was  less  extensive, 
especially  in  New  England. 

But  negro  or  mulatto  slavery  was  not  the  only 
human  bondage  known  in  America  in  these  colonial 
days.  A  large  number  of  poor  whites  were  in  every 
province  still  held  to  labor  and  servitude  by  a  tenure 
scarcely  less  degraded,  during  some  stated  term  of 
years,  whether  for  farm  and  menial  service  or  as 
artisans.  First  of  all  were  the  redemptioners,  so  called, 
emigrating  with  unpaid  passage-money  from  Europe. 
These  engaged  themselves  and  their  families  to  the 
captain  of  the  vessel  or  the  ship-owner  for  a  specific 
time  after  their  arrival  in  the  New  World,  that  they 
might  work  out  their  dues.  Many  a  poor  Irishman 
or  German  came  over  from  abroad  upon  such  terms  of 
carriage;  and  the  hirer,  when  not  paying  down  the 
full  passage-money  at  once,  would  give  security  out 
right,  so  as  to  indemnify  the  vessel  against  loss  should 
the  bond-servant  run  away.  The  middle  provinces 
were,  now  and  later,  most  familiar  with  the  system. 
A  hundred,  just  arrived  by  the  brig  Patty,  we  see 
advertised  in  Philadelphia  in  1772,  whose  time  was  to 
be  disposed  of  at  the  wharf — men,  boys  and  girls; 
among  them  skilled  laborers,  such  as  smiths,  nail- 
makers,  skinners,  carpenters,  grooms  and  farmers. 
Again,  this  same  year,  a  load  of  hearty  Irish  servants 
of  both  sexes  from  Cork  was  similarly  put  up,  vary 
ing  in  age  from  thirteen  to  twenty  years,  and  suitable 


FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN          17 

for  serving  "gentlemen,  farmers  or  traders."  And 
once  more,  "various  redemptioners,  maid-servants, 
boys  and  girls;  coopers,  weavers,  tailors,  shoemakers 
and  hatters ;  their  time  to  be  disposed  of  by  the  captain 
of  the  vessel."1 

Besides  these  white  temporary  slaves  of  debt,  British 
convicts  were  shipped  to  our  colonies  in  large  numbers 
to  work  out  their  punishment  as  bond-servants  for  such 
as  might  choose  to  employ  them.2  Nor  were  our 
thrifty  colonial  authorities  indisposed  to  lighten  their 
own  local  taxation  and  relieve  their  local  jails  by  letting 
provincial  criminals  fulfil  their  penalties  in  servitude 
at  private  cost.  Many  condemned  subjects  had  been 
brought  up  to  some  useful  handicraft  or  occupation  in 
which  they  were  expert;  and  whether  for  household 
employment  or  as  farm  hands  and  journeymen,  they 
largely  supplied  the  labor  market  of  our  colonies. 
Political  and  military  prisoners  had  sometimes  been 
thus  sent  over. 

Once  more,  indentured  service  in  this  era  was  pro 
tected  by  law;  and  needy  men  and  women  would  bind 
themselves  out  to  a  master  in  consideration  of  board 
and  wages  during  some  considerable  period  mutually 
agreed  upon;  while  parents  in  humble  circumstances 
took  it  as  of  course  to  apprentice  their  minor  sons  by 
indenture  to  a  trade,  thus  to  relieve  their  own  immedi 
ate  burden.  History  shows  us  the  parental  Franklin, 
worthiest  among  Boston  mechanics,  disposing  of  his 
young  Benjamin  in  this  manner,  and,  after  casting 

1P.  G.,  1772. 

2About  50,000,  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  is  a 
trustworthy  estimate.  Between  1717  and  1775  not  less  than 
10,000  were  sent  from  the  "Old  Bailey"  alone,  chiefly  to  Mary 
land,  Virginia  and  the  Caribbean  Islands.  2  Fiske's  Virginia,  183. 


i8  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

about  among  other  pursuits,  binding  him  at  the  age  of 
twelve  as  printer's  devil  to  his  own  adult  half-brother. 

White  convicts  and  indentured  servants,  young  and 
old,  of  both  sexes,  figure  largely  in  the  columns  of  the 
native  press  of  this  era.1  Fine,  healthy,  self-enslaved 
servants  were  offered — not  manual  laborers  only,  but 
sometimes  schoolmasters  or  surgeons.  Convicts  seem 
not  seldom  to  have  been  transported  fraudulently  from 
the  mother  country  in  the  guise  of  indentured  servants 
or  redemptioners ;  and  with  the  abundant  influx  of  poor 
Irish,  Welsh,  Dutch,  and  other  whites,  who  were  put 
up  publicly  to  be  disposed  of  for  specified  terms,  with 
negro  slaves  besides,  it  may  well  be  apprehended  that 
domestic  service  on  the  common-law  equal  footing  of 
a  contract  of  hire  had  no  great  prevalence  in  these 
colonies.  Those  cargoes  of  women  shipped  into  Vir 
ginia  for  matrimonial  purchase,  of  which  we  read  in  a 
popular  novel  of  recent  date,  may  well  have  belonged 
chiefly  to  the  seventeenth  century;  and  yet  we  find  a 
load  of  white  girls  brought  over  from  Europe  and 
offered  for  sale  (presumably  for  marriage)  from  ship 
board  at  Philadelphia  scarcely  five  years  before  the 
first  Continental  Congress  met  in  that  city. 

Two  impressive  features  of  such  white  service  in 
those  latest  years  of  British  rule  are  observable,  which 
ere  the  present  day  have  ceased  to  be  legal  or  custom 
ary  :  ( i )  The  service  was  not  undertaken  simply  as  a 
personal  relation  of  employer  and  employed,  but  was 
freely  assignable  to  others  while  the  term  lasted ;  so 
that,  with  a  pecuniary  chattel  interest  in  the  master 
disposable  to  third  persons  at  discretion,  the  servant, 

1Thus,  the  Virginia  Gazette  of  1772  advertises  an  indentured 
servant  thirty-three  years  old  to  be  disposed  of — a  tailor  by  trade, 
with  a  stoop  in  the  shoulders. 


FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN          19 

for  the  time  being  at  least,  might  fare  little  better  than 
a  brute.  (2)  The  specific  service  itself  was  often  for 
a  term  long  enough  to  be  thought  impolitic  and  un 
reasonable,  as  we  should  view  the  law  to-day.  For,  to 
say  nothing  of  a  child's  apprenticeship  during  his  useful 
minority,  a  person  of  full  age  might  have  been  put 
under  a  service  contract  for  five  years  absolutely  or 
even  longer.  An  unexpired  four  years'  term  seems  to 
have  been  frequently  transferred  in  this  era,  while  five 
years  was  a  redemptioner's  usual  time,  and  seven  years 
by  no  means  exceptional.1  Redemptioners,  besides  re 
imbursing  their  own  passage,  would  sell  their  minor 
children  or  themselves  into  service  long  enough  to  get 
a  knowledge  of  this  new  country  before  starting  in  life 
independently.  A  convict's  penal  term  might,  of 
course,  be  a  very  long  one. 


With  thirteen  distinct  provincial  governments  in  the 
vast  and  then  impenetrable  American  wilderness,  it  is 
not  strange  to  find  these  bondspeople,  whether  white 
or  black,  whether  bound  for  life  or  for  a  fixed  term  of 
years,  escaping  from  one  colony  into  another  and  lost 
to  the  master's  pursuit.  No  advertisements  were  more 
common  in  the  press  of  this  epoch — in  the  papers  of 
Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  as  well  as  Vir 
ginia — than  those  of  runaways  whom  the  owner  of  his 
time  and  labor  sought  to  reclaim.  Usually  a  reward 
was  offered  to  any  one  securing  the  fugitive  in  any  of 
his  Majesty's  jails  so  that  the  master  might  have  him 
again;  shipmasters  and  others  were  warned  emphat- 

JOne  mulatto  girl's  time  in  1769  is  advertised  in  Philadelphia 
as  having  fifteen  years  yet  to  run ;  hence,  I  presume,  she  was  no 
slave  in  the  strict  sense. 


20  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ically  not  to  harbor  or  employ,  under  penalty  of  the 
law.  The  captors,  too,  of  runaways  clapped  in  jail 
upon  suspicion  and  not  identified  would  give  public 
notice  that  the  person  apprehended  would  be  sold  for 
charges  (like  some  runaway  horse)  unless  claimed  or 
taken  away  by  the  owner.  Even  our  peerless  Wash 
ington,  in  April,  1775,  is  seen  proclaiming  a  reward 
in  the  Virginia  Gazette,  not  for  negro  fugitives,  but 
for  two  Scotch  serving-men  who  had  just  absconded 
from  Mount  Vernon. 

Announcements  like  these  in  our  provincial  press 
were  often  accompanied  by  the  rude  wood-cut  of  a 
tramp  with  a  bundle  of  clothes  borne  on  a  stick  over  his 
shoulder — the  usual  outfit  of  a  vagrant  travelling  in 
search  of  work;  and  sometimes,  by  way  of  general 
warning,  a  two-horned  devil  was  depicted  in  the  act 
of  seizing  him.  A  terse  and  graphic  description  of  the 
runaway — of  the  clothes  worn,  of  his  personal  singu 
larities,  traits  of  character,  scars  and  malformations- 
identified  him  in  language  more  plain  than  elegant.  If 
an  immigrant  had  lately  come  over  the  seas,  it  was 
suggested  that  the  peculiar  odor  of  the  ship  might  aid 
in  his  detection.  If  the  fugitive  was  a  man,  he  wore, 
most  likely,  a  small,  coarse,  leather  cap  or  uncocked 
felt  hat;  an  Osnaburg  shirt;  leather  or  perhaps  hair 
cloth  breeches,  a  homespun  jacket,  a  snuff-colored  or 
cinnamon  waistcoat;  his  head  displayed  his  own  short- 
cropped  hair,  and  was  usually  wigless.  If  a  woman 
servant,  she  had  on  a  loose  calico  gown,  a  linsey  petti 
coat  and  plaid  stockings,  while  a  brass  ring  adorned 
her  middle  finger;  her  slattern  attire  was  otherwise 
inventoried  minutely  from  headgear  to  stockings. 
Many  runaways  were  to  be  known  by  the  marks  of 
smallpox:  this  one  might  be  identified  by  a  stoop  in 


FREEMEN  AND  BONDSMEN         21 

the  shoulders ;  that  by  scars  of  the  whip  upon  his  back 
or  by  malformation  of  foot  or  hand  from  some  early 
injury.  The  publication  of  such  traits  and  peculiarities 
ran  often  into  malicious  libel  and  ridicule;  and,  posi 
tively  or  by  insinuation,  a  fugitive  would  be  charged 
with  stealing  his  master's  horse  or  pilfering  from  the 
family  wardrobe  before  taking  flight.  The  defrauded 
master  thus  took  out  his  revenge  upon  the  absconder. 
One  indentured  servant,  a  master  of  Low  Dutch,  is 
described  as  speaking  through  his  nose ;  a  negro  slave 
as  quite  black  naturally,  "but  when  challenged  and  he 
is  going  to  lie,  his  eyes  will  twinkle  and  his  face  change 
color."  One  refugee  showed  his  teeth  when  he 
laughed,  or  winked  with  the  left  eye ;  another,  an  Irish 
servant  girl,  took  snuff  immoderately  at  the  right  side 
of  her  nose,  was  much  given  to  liquor,  and  "when  in 
liquor  was  apt  to  laugh  greatly."  Various  of  these 
fugitives  were  "down-looking,  dull-like  fellows;"  one 
talked  loud  in  discourse  and  was  apt  to  swear  by  his 
Maker;  and  very  many  were  artful,  pert,  impudent, 
smooth-tongued,  turbulent  in  temper,  in  the  injured 
master's  estimation,  whether  drunk  or  sober.  One  em 
ployer  in  1772,  who  took  the  full  humor  of  his  loss, 
published  his  Irish  runaway  lad  in  the  Philadelphia 
Gazette  in  doggerel  rhyme,  and  his  poem  of  thirty 
lines — fugitive  poetry — embraced  the  usual  points  of 
such  description. 


Men  of  a  master  race  holding  others  in  obedience 
may  yet  cherish  a  vigorous  sense  of  freedom,  and  detest 
all  the  more  for  themselves,  from  the  contrast  with 
which  they  are  familiar,  whatever  might  reduce  them 
to  the  social  condition  of  their  vassals.  "Britons  never 


22  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

can  be  slaves,"  was  the  burden  of  a  favorite  national 
song,  still  remembered;  and  a  corresponding  sentiment 
was  shown  in  colonial  appeals  of  this  stirring  epoch  for 
liberty  or  death.  "A  vile  system  of  slavery  like  that 
of  Domitian  is  preparing  for  us,"  writes  a  patriot  con 
tributor  to  the  press  in  1775 ;  "before  God  and  man  we 
are  right."  But  New  England's  sons  were  nearest  to 
a  republic.  What  nobler  type  of  yeomanry  has  the 
world  ever  witnessed  than  they  who  gathered  on  Lex 
ington  common  at  the  roll  of  the  drum,  on  the  gray 
dawn  of  that  eventful  iQth  of  April,  to  seal  as  martyrs 
their  devotion  to  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty  and  self- 
rule?  Seventy  minute-men  drew  up  in  line  to  with 
stand  a  royal  disciplined  force  of  more  than  ten  times 
their  own  number,  and  the  fatal  volley,  fired  to  break 
and  scatter  them,  signalled  to  mankind  the  loss  forever 
of  European  supremacy  in  this  New  World.  "Stand 
your  ground,"  said  their  sturdy  captain,  as  the  fatal 
moment  approached ;  "don't  fire  unless  fired  upon ;  but 
if  they  mean  to  have  a  war,  let  it  begin  here." 


Ill 

CRIMES  AND  DISORDERS 

Nr  EITHER  in  England  nor  in  these  English 
settlements  of  America  did  the  law  relax  its 
severity  toward  criminals  while  the  author 
ity  of  the  British  Crown  lasted.  Nor  need  we  deem  it 
strange  that,  in  our  far-away  wilderness,  crimes  were 
committed  of  which  a  local  community  took  peculiar 
cognizance  to  detect,  punish  and  hold  in  check.  While 
law-abiding  people  were  greatly  in  the  majority,  re 
specting  the  lives  and  property  of  one  another,  there  was 
throughout  a  drifting  element  of  the  lawless  and  repro 
bate,  largely  recruited  from  the  runaway  servants  and 
convicts  I  have  described,  who  roamed  from  province 
to  province  committing  crimes — not  to  add  those  needy 
and  disreputable  vagrants  out  of  caste  abroad  who  had 
come  over  the  Atlantic  to  better  their  chances  in  a 
new  world,  but  brought  with  them  vicious  tastes  and 
habits. 

Such  incidents  are  natural  to  the  colonizing  of  a  new 
country;  and  though  there  must  have  been  little,  com 
paratively,  to  steal  where  portable  wealth  increased  so 
slowly,  crime  kept  in  practice.  Footpads  abounded, 
horse  and  cattle  stealers,  petty  thieves  and  burglars, 
forgers  and  counterfeiters.  A  prudent  freeman  carried 
his  loaded  pistol  as  he  journeyed  with  money  about  his 
person,  and  highway  robberies  committed  after  dusk 
in  the  lonely  suburbs  of  Philadelphia  were  again  and 


24  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

again  reported  to  the  magistrates.  A  threatening  letter 
would  be  sent  anonymously  to  some  thriving  citizen, 
commanding  him  to  leave  a  stated  sum  in  cash  at  a 
certain  milestone  just  outside  that  city  on  a  specified 
date.  In  one  province  or  another  the  lonely  traveller's 
purse  was  abstracted  from  his  cloak  or  his  saddlebags 
by  force  or  cunning  stratagem;  a  farmer's  house  was 
broken  into  and  robbed  on  the  Lord's  day  while  all  the 
family  were  at  divine  service.  In  1769,  as  we  read, 
thirty  armed  men  at  the  suburbs  of  Philadelphia  way 
laid  all  passers-by,  with  their  faces  painted  black.  For 
heinous  and  alarming  instances  of  highway  robbery, 
the  colonial  governor  or  the  town  authorities  made 
proclamation  offering  a  reward;  and  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood  would  pursue  as  a  posse,  eager  to  pre 
serve  good  order  against  all  disturbers  of  the  peace. 
New  Jerseymen  by  their  own  vigorous  concert  once 
broke  up  a  gang  of  robbers  in  that  province,  whose 
accomplices  were  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia;  and 
when,  in  1774,  near  Westchester,  footpads  attacked 
a  traveller,  robbed  him  of  his  cash,  silver  buckles,  sur- 
tout  and  coat,  we  are  told  that  "his  worship  the  Mayor 
of  New  York"  sent  out  promptly  a  searching  party 
which  caught  the  culprits.1  The  hue  and  cry  started 
against  offenders  in  one  colony  would  attract  notice 
and  induce  co-operation  in  other  colonies  if  the  crime 
was  atrocious  or  ramified  extensively  in  its  plot. 

In  1771,  a  gang  of  thieves  was  broken  up  at  Will- 
iamsburg,  then  Virginia's  capital,  whose  confederates 
were  in  the  various  neighboring  provinces,  negroes  and 
housekeepers  being  alike  implicated.  In  1772,  the  work 
house  at  Philadelphia  was  feloniously  entered,  and  out 
of  one  of  its  closets  was  stolen  a  black  walnut  box,  "a 
*Essex  Gazette,  1774. 


CRIMES  AND   DISORDERS  25 

little  larger  than  a  wig  box,"  which  contained  valuable 
papers  and  money ;  for  these  were  not  the  days  of  iron 
safes,  even  for  public  officials.  Brass  kettles  were  pur 
loined  from  housekeepers,  as  well  as  silver  spoons  and 
mugs,  coins  and  bills  of  credit.  "Horse  stealing  is 
prevalent  all  over  the  country,"  complains  a  New  Jersey 
farmer  to  the  press  in  1772;  and  by  the  time  our 
Revolutionary  disturbances  began  the  ownership  of  all 
cattle  became  precarious. 

Humane  and  discriminating  treatment  of  crimes  and 
culprits  dates  from  our  political  independence;  and 
Virginia's  famous  bill  of  rights  gave  the  first  grand 
impulse  to  criminal  reform  for  our  English-speaking 
race.  For  while  colonial  relations  lasted,  capital 
punishment  here,  as  across  the  seas,  was  visited  upon 
many  of  the  lesser  offences,  besides  murder  or  treason. 
Abroad  in  1777,  two  men  swung  from  the  same  gal 
lows  at  Tyburn — the  one,  a  scholar  and  a  doctor  of 
divinity,  for  forgery ;  the  other,  a  low-lived  wretch,  for 
highway  robbery;  and  while  jeers  and  ribaldry  and  the 
hawking  about  of  a  culprit's  last  dying  speech  were 
incidents  less  manifest  here,  perhaps,  in  America  than 
in  a  London  crowd,  the  common  people  yet  flocked 
to  see  a  local  execution  with  a  like  morbid  curiosity 
and  a  brutalizing  sense  of  delight.  Men  were  hanged 
in  various  American  colonies  for  robbery,  for  horse- 
stealing,  for  forging  and  counterfeiting,  during  those 
ten  years  that  preceded  the  outbreak  of  Revolution. 
In  Connecticut,  one  notorious  and  hardened  offender, 
sentenced  for  burglary,  was  ordered  to  be  loaded  with 
chains,  while  a  guard  was  placed  over  the  county  jail 
every  night  until  he  was  executed.  In  New  York,  four 
persons  convicted  of  burglary  and  horse-stealing — a 
negro  woman  and  three  Irishmen — were  all  hanged 


26  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

together  in  terrorem.  Burning  at  the  stake  was  in 
England  an  infliction  of  the  law  upon  one  gross  mur 
derer  in  1 765 ;  and  in  New  Jersey  a  similar  sentence 
was  pronounced  and  probably  carried  into  effect  about 
the  same  time;  while  in  the  West  Indies,  certainly, 
roasting  alive  in  the  crackling  flames  was  a  penalty 
for  crime  not  seldom  visited  upon  the  black  bond 
servant.  Just  as  banishment  to  America  was  imposed 
on  convicts  in  the  mother  country,  as  a  lesser  infliction 
than  hanging,  so  here,  occasionally,  a  province  was 
seen  experimenting  with  that  punishment,  though  per 
haps  to  no  more  definite  end  than  to  ship  a  reprobate 
out  of  the  particular  jurisdiction,  to  settle  and  annoy 
elsewhere  as  he  might.1 

Of  "cruel  and  ignominious  punishments"  which 
stopped  short  of  a  death  infliction  or  banishment  or  a 
long  imprisonment,  there  are  many  on  record  in  this 
country  up  to  the  very  latest  date  of  our  royal  establish 
ment,  and  some  of  them  were  found  effective,  indeed, 
for  striking  terror  into  offenders  of  the  baser  sort.  For 
"vagrant  men"  were  a  stigmatized  class,  and  the  usual 
policy  was  to  keep  them  so  identified  and  separate  from 
the  elect.  Thus,  burning  In  the  hand  was  inflicted  in 
Virginia  in  1765,  and  again  in  South  Carolina  in  1768. 
A  notorious  burglar  was  in  1771  publicly  whipped  in 
Connecticut;  one  of  his  ears  was  cut  off  besides,  and 
"B"  was  seared  into  his  body  with  a  hot  iron.  That 
same  year,  in  New  Haven,  a  mulatto  was  branded  with 
an  "A"  in  the  forehead  for  adultery  with  a  white  woman. 
In  1769,  a  Boston  burglar  was  publicly  branded  in  his 
forehead,  at  King  Street  (now  State),  amid  a  crowd 
of  approving  spectators.  New  Englanders,  in  fact, 

Watson's  Philadelphia  shows  £25  allowed  a  sheriff  for  thus 
clearing  four  notorious  offenders  from  Pennsylvania. 


CRINTETAND   DISORDERS  27 


about  the  time  that  Massachusetts  broke  with  Great 
Britain,  had  complained  much  of  the  prevalence  of 
thefts  and  stealing  in  that  section  of  the  country,  and  it 
was  claimed  that  the  greater  severity  shown  in  South 
ern  colonies  had  driven  many  loose  and  lawless  scoun 
drels  thither,  who  expected,  if  caught,  from  the  com 
parative  lenity  of  New  England  law  and  the  com 
passion  of  New  England  juries,  a  light  punishment. 
New  York  was  a  province  where,  at  this  early  date,  for 
the  smallest  theft,  a  petty  criminal  was  carted  through 
the  principal  streets,  that  he  might  be  publicly  viewed 
and  identified.  Under  a  new  sense  of  provocation, 
Rhode  Island  denounced  banishment  against  all  roam 
ing  miscreants  of  horse-thieves,  besides  full  forfeiture 
of  property  (if  he  had  any)  and  a  severe  whipping, 
and  death  was  threatened  to  all  culprits  of  that  descrip 
tion  who  were  ever  caught  and  convicted  in  that  colony 
a  second  time.  In  various  towns  of  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  harsh  sentences  revived 
in  these  last  days  of  King  George  ;  and  the  ignominy  of 
cropping  and  branding  was  superadded  to  whipping, 
before  thousands  of  the  applauding  people.  Another 
torturing  sentence  applied  in  these  days  was  that  of 
causing  a  culprit  to  sit  for  an  hour  or  more  on  the  gal 
lows  doing  public  penance  with  a  halter  about  his  neck  ; 
and  this  sometimes  while  some  worse  malefactor  was 
from  the  same  platform  swung  sternly  off  into 
eternity. 

Often  these  tormenting  punishments  were  accom 
panied  by  the  more  usual  infliction  of  whipping  and 
imprisonment.  And  if  the  public  disposition  was  to 
exempt  one  from  infamous  punishment  on  his  first  con 
viction,  a  second  offence  was  likely  to  be  unmercifully 
dealt  with.  And  these,  let  us  recall,  were  not  the  days 


28  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

of  anaesthetics  nor  of  the  skilful  knife  of  surgery ;  and 
some  of  the  unhappy  culprits  thus  mutilated  bled  so 
profusely  as  to  endanger  life  itself. 

Both  in  England  and  America,  the  whipping-post, 
the  stocks  and  the  pillory  were  instruments  of  petty 
discipline,  in  vogue  for  both  sexes,  until  long  after  the 
Revolution.1  A  Boston  woman  took  twenty-one  lashes 
at  the  whipping-post  for  pilfering  some  stockings  ex 
posed  for  sale  at  a  shop  window ;  a  Rhode  Island  man 
bore  thirty  stripes  twice  repeated  for  stealing  two  yoke 
of  oxen;  and  at  Providence,  in  1771,  an  old  offender 
had  to  stand  in  the  pillory  for  two  hours  with  a  halter 
about  his  neck  and  the  label  "notorious  thief."  Six 
women  at  a  time  were  in  1765  lashed  for  immorality 
in  York  County,  Massachusetts,  and  the  more  hardened 
of  them  were  sent  to  the  house  of  correction,  whose 
regular  discipline  required  ten  stripes  specially  by  way 
of  initiation.  In  Philadelphia,  a  woman  who  had  been 
caught  picking  pockets  in  the  market  was  exposed  for 
two  hours  on  the  court-house  steps,  with  her  hands 
bound  to  the  rails  and  her  face  turned  toward  the 
pillory;  and  when  released  she  was  publicly  whipped. 
Watson  relates  that  Philadelphians  of  the  choice  circles 
would  send  their  stubborn  servants  to  the  jail  yard  for 
chastisement,  with  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  jailer;2 
and  a  like  custom  certainly  prevailed  in  some  of  our 
slaveholding  towns  at  the  South  far  into  the  nine- 

*In  the  pillory  the  victim  stood  on  a  stool,  with  his  head  and 
hands  fitted  into  holes,  while  stocks  were  for  the  feet,  as  one 
was  placed  recumbent.  These  long  familiar  contrivances  were 
usually  fixed  in  some  public  place.  But  the  whipping-post  was  in 
New  York  made  a  perambulating  punishment,  the  criminal,  per 
chance  confined  in  a  tar-barrel  with  his  offence  placarded,  being 
whipped  at  each  street  corner. 

"Watson's  Philadelphia. 


CRIMES  AND   DISORDERS  29 

teenth  century.  But  colonial  laws  and  procedure  from 
the  earliest  times  fostered  class  distinctions;  people  of 
quality  were  usually  fined  simply  for  the  lesser  trans 
gressions,  while  the  poor  and  miserable  had  to  take  the 
lash  in  ignominy. 

* 'Benefit  of  clergy''  was  a  privilege  long  conceded 
by  our  common  law  to  men  of  letters,  so  that  they 
might  escape  the  block  or  the  gallows.  A  book  in 
black-letter  Latin  was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  con 
victed  person,  and  if  he  could  read  and  translate  it  like 
a  trained  ecclesiastic — as  "a  gentleman  and  scholar" — 
he  was  only  burned  in  the  hand ;  but  otherwise  he  had 
to  suffer  the  death  penalty.  In  1769,  a  burglar  tried 
and  convicted  in  Boston  was  seen  invoking  this  priv 
ilege.  But  a  stringent  act  of  the  next  year's  general 
court  denounced  death  for  a  capital  offence  in  Massa 
chusetts  "without  benefit  of  clergy,"  and  in  such  phrase 
did  legislation  come  to  exclude  the  plea  in  other 
colonies.  Compassion  softened  at  times  the  rigor  of 
the  law  in  imposing  sentence.  We  read  that  in  1771 
a  young  and  beautiful  girl  under  twenty  was  indicted 
with  some  fellows  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  for 
stealing  horses;  she  was  found  guilty  with  the  rest, 
but  the  susceptible  court  was  so  won  by  her  beauty  and 
air  of  innocent  distress  that  the  judges  let  her  go  un 
punished.  Persons  under  sentence  of  death  got  some 
times  a  reprieve  or  a  pardon  on  the  scaffold,  the  author 
ities  not  seldom  contriving  a  torturing  delay  for  dis 
cipline  until  the  last  moment. 

When  it  came  to  imprisoning  men  for  their  politics 
after  these  colonies  rebelled  against  Great  Britain, 
rescues  and  jail-breaking  became  quite  frequent, 
whether  on  Whig  or  Tory  side.  Then  again,  we  had 
jails  and  the  jail  penalty  for  insolvent  debtors  in 


30  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

colonial  days,  as  in  the  mother  country ;  and  prisoners 
for  debt  did  occasional  business  in  their  quarters.  One 
quack  doctor  thus  debarred  of  his  liberty  advertised 
his  medicines  for  the  liver  in  a  local  paper,  and  offered 
to  supply  all  customers  who  chose  to  call  at  the  jail 
or  send  in  their  orders  through  the  keeper;  another 
prisoner  who  wanted  to  dispose  of  7000  acres  of  wild 
land  on  the  west  side  of  the  Connecticut  River  an 
nounced  an  auction  in  his  jail  chamber.  Revolution, 
however,  stirred  strongly  the  American  heart  against 
punishments  for  misfortune.  After  an  anniversary 
dinner  given  in  New  York  City1  to  commemorate  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  the  remnants  of  the  feast,  with 
plenty  of  liquor,  were  sent  to  imprisoned  debtors,  the 
donors  bearing  their  supplies  in  person ;  and  that  gen 
erous  example  was  followed  elsewhere.  Our  American 
States,  their  independence  of  Europe  once  achieved, 
led  mankind  in  abolishing  imprisonment  for  debt  as 
one  of  the  earliest  of  legal  reforms.  But  debtors' 
prisons  had  been  destitute  of  comfort ;  and  a  New  York 
appeal  in  1771  claimed  that  the  prisoners  of  that  city 
depended  entirely  upon  common  charity  in  the  winter 
season  for  wood  to  warm  them  and  to  dress  their 
victuals,  and  that  the  bedclothing  doled  out  to  them 
was  scanty. 


The  rude  audacity  of  our  populace  was  in  constant 
evidence  in  the  several  colonies  after  the  Crown  once 
entered  upon  its  career  of  arbitrary  taxation.  When, 
in  1765,  the  baleful  Stamp  Act  went  into  operation,  a 
Boston  crowd,  collecting  after  dark,  pulled  down  the 

JIn  1768. 


CRIMES  AND   DISORDERS  31 

newly  built  house  of  the  Secretary  of  the  province, 
and  broke  into  the  mansion  of  Hutchinson,  the  King's 
lieutenant-governor,  ruthlessly  destroying  his  furni 
ture  and  carrying  off  papers  and  private  effects.  Signs 
of  riotous  resistance  followed  generally  in  the  colonies ; 
and  to  hanging  and  burning  in  effigy,  our  Sons  of  Lib 
erty  added  the  coercion  of  those  appointed  to  distribute 
the  stamps.  In  Norwich,  in  New  London,  in  New  York 
City  and  elsewhere,  effigies  of  these  obnoxious  minions 
of  the  Crown  were  borne  about  in  nightly  procession  and 
then  were  left  gibbeted  or  else  destroyed  in  a  bonfire. 
Such  puppets  were  made  up  often  with  a  boot  fastened 
to  one  shoulder,1  from  which  the  devil  was  seen  peer 
ing  out.  Maryland  patriots  made  ghastly  burial  of  a 
printed  copy  of  the  Stamp  Act ;  a  mock  procession  down 
in  North  Carolina  bore  solemnly  an  effigy  of  Liberty 
laid  in  its  coffin,  to  the  muffled  drum  and  tolling  of 
bells ;  and  then,  pretending  to  feel  the  pulse  and  finding 
that  Liberty  was  still  alive,  they  marched  back  to  a 
lively  quickstep.  Stamp  distributors  were  waited  on 
in  every  colony  by  local  committees  and  forced  to 
resign  under  threats  of  personal  violence.  He  who 
resigned  or  recanted  by  speech  or  writing  was  wel 
comed  with  huzzas,  but  whoever  stood  out  obstinate 
was  likely  to  be  dragged  through  the  town  with  a  halter 
on  his  neck,  while  a  patriot  mob  broke  into  his  house 
and  despoiled  his  goods.  "Liberty,  property,  and  no 
stamps!"  was  the  cry;  and  majorities  proved  tyran 
nous,  though  always  with  some  clear  purpose  to  be 
achieved,  and  not  often  for  wanton  or  promiscuous 
violence. 

Such  colonial  riots  were  renewed  when  Parliament 
applied  new  methods  of  taxation,  and  the  King  sent 
*For  "Lord  Bute,"  one  of  the  grim  puns  of  the  day. 


32  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

his  troops  to  America  for  discipline  and  compulsion. 
The  scuffles  between  townspeople  and  the  soldiery,  which 
in  Boston  caused  the  massacre  of  1770,  found  their 
counterpart  in  New  York  City ;  and  Maryland  had  her 
tea  destruction  on  shipboard  as  well  as  Massachusetts, 
and  more  openly.  Besides  the  Crown  officers,  revenue 
informers  received  rough  treatment  from  the  colonial 
Sons  of  Liberty.  Our  Whig  patriots  handled  roughly 
the  persistent  loyalists,  and  were  roughly  handled  in 
return  by  British  troops  on  opportunity.  Tarring  and 
feathering  made  a  feature  of  such  demonstrations ;  the 
victim  was  stripped  down  to  his  breeches,  smeared 
on  the  skin  with  the  pitchy  mixture  from  a  bucket,  and 
then  treated  to  the  contents  of  a  feather  bed,  after 
which  the  drum  beat,  the  procession  moved,  bearing 
him  in  ridicule  upon  a  rail  or  in  a  cart,  savagely  mal 
treated.  "Curse  you,"  said  a  sergeant  of  red-coats  to 
a  Boston  citizen  thus  seized  upon,  while  the  port  bill 
was  enforced;  "I  am  going  to  serve  you  as  you  have 
done  our  men ;"  and  we  read,  not  strangely,  of  a  woman 
who  died  of  fright  as  she  saw  a  man  borne  riotously 
past  her  window  in  that  fearful  garb  of  punish 
ment.  Personal  suffering  and  disgrace  were  in 
geniously  worked  into  the  infliction  of  such  riotous 
penalties. 

What  we  call  lynch  law,  then,  is  no  new  product  of 
American  life,  but  antedates  the  Revolution,  and  our 
patriot  forefathers  gloried  in  it.  Our  Sons  of  Liberty 
held  many  a  secret  conclave  to  discuss  plans  of  local 
resistance,  and  in  the  evening  a  bonfire  made  upon  a 
certain  lot  or  common  was  the  sign  to  gather  for  rebel 
lious  concert,  often  in  disguise  as  well  as  darkness. 
But  whether  by  day  or  by  night,  a  crowd  came  readily 
together  in  those  exciting  times, 


CRIMES  AND   DISORDERS  33 

Downright  and  determined  in  their  course  of  action, 
whether  toward  person  or  property,  American  com 
moners  of  that  day,  like  their  contemporaries  of  the 
mother  country,  were  disposed  when  incensed  to  plain 
speech,  coarse,  forcible  and  vulgar,  and  withal  to  mis 
chievous  acts  of  violence.  Duelling,  to  be  sure,  was 
not  frequent  among  our  common  people,  being  rather  an 
indulgence  of  the  upper  class,  and  fostered  by  the  habits 
of  military  officers ;  but  there  were  brawls  in  the  coffee 
houses  and  wherever  elsewhere  personal  opponents  came 
together.  Smollett  has  familiarized  us  from  his  own 
youthful  experience  with  the  oaths  and  brutality  which 
accompanied  naval  discipline  on  board  a  British  man- 
of-war  in  his  day;  and  the  press-gang  method  for 
obtaining  crews  was  long  a  disgrace  to  humanity.  Nor 
were  military  officers  of  the  mother  country  less  over 
bearing  than  those  of  the  navy;  and,  likely  enough, 
Major  Pitcairn,  who  marched  the  royal  troops  to  Lex 
ington  common,  not  only  ordered  our  rebel  yeomanry 
to  throw  down  their  arms  and  disperse,  but  swore  at 
them  besides,  as  he  was  reported  by  eye-witnesses  to 
have  done.  Coarse  abuse,  with  profane  or  indecent 
expression,  too  often  accompanied  a  civilian's  act  of 
violence,  religious  though  so  many  of  our  people  were 
in  their  general  course  of  life.  Colonial  almanacs 
would  print  essays  on  profane  swearing,  and  a  printed 
colonial  sermon  against  "that  abominable  but  too 
fashionable  vice"  was  recommended  to  families  for  the 
frequent  perusal  of  young  people.  Yet  blasphemy 
against  God  or  the  Trinity,,  swearing,  and  Sabbath- 
breaking  besides,  were  all  severely  punishable  under 
our  local  codes;  and  by  some  turn  of  expression  that 
distorted  the  irreverent  word  or  phrase  into  something 
anomalous,  the  vehement  man  of  morals  was  taught 


34  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

to  compound  with  his  conscience  or  divert  the  denunci 
ation  of  the  law.1 

Where  our  commoner  had  a  personal  altercation,  he 
would  not  unfrequently  resort  to  the  local  press  by  way 
of  invoking  a  public  opinion  in  his  favor.  One  man 
advertised  injurious  reflections  upon  his  neighbor's 
character;  the  latter  would  adduce  proofs  of  his  right 
eousness  or  else  retaliate.  The  hirer  of  a  horse  who 
quarrelled  with  his  letter  over  the  recompense  published 
as  excessive  the  sum  he  had  been  forced  to  pay.  A 
general  offender  forced  to  recant  would  do  so  over  his 
own  signature,  and  many  a  Tory  was  compelled  to 
such  penance.  We  see  one  countryman  humbly  con 
fessing  his  fault  through  the  press  for  having  slandered 
another ;  he  publicly  asked  the  man's  pardon  and  prom 
ised  to  be  more  careful  for  the  future.  For  one  would 
throw  down  his  adversary  in  those  days  and  then  force 
him  to  eat  humble  pie.  "Judge  ye  between  me  and  my 
neighbor"  was  the  frequent  appeal,  not  to  courts  so 
much  as  to  the  community. 

^.g.,   "I  swow,"  "I  swan,"  "doggoned,"  "darn  it  all." 


IV 

BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES  AND  DEATHS 

IN  no  respect  were  Americans  of  this  early  age  more 
admirable  than  in  the  home  and  family  relation. 
Marriage  was  honorable,  almost  universal;  and 
men  and  women  paired  to  rear  a  family  and  give  the 
genealogy  of  the  race  a  new  progression.  Something 
of  that  same  devotion  to  their  wives  which  the  polished 
Tacitus  had  remarked  of  those  savage  tribes,  our  an 
cestors,  when  the  decay  of  Rome's  degenerate  empire 
supplied  a  classic  but  corrupt  comparison,  could  be 
traced  in  these  hardy  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  who  were  peopling  a  new  continent  for  a  fresh 
example  to  mankind.  At  the  pioneer  home  and  fire 
side,  Americans  of  all  social  grades  received  an  early 
discipline  that  fitted  them  for  free  institutions  and  good 
citizenship.  The  household  made  somewhat  of  a  tribal 
bond,  and  industry,  thrift,  learning,  religion,  patriot 
ism  and  the  social  affections  were  all  taught  in  the 
family  circle.  Marriage — nature's  true  companionship 
of  the  sexes,  contrived  for  the  whole  human  race — was 
the  settlement  for  life  in  each  commonwealth ;  a  rugged, 
commonplace  existence  found  in  the  home  and  help 
mate,  life's  chief  solace  and  recreation.  Children,  too, 
and  the  duplicated  ties  of  marriage  alliance  and 
progeny  to  a  remote  issue  confirmed  one's  hold  upon 
the  future  and  gave  a  personal  zest  to  the  coming  years. 
Of  the  common  wish  then  prevalent  to  marry  and 


36  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

settle  in  life,  various  reminders  have  come  down  to  us. 
And  as  the  old  churchyard  epitaphs  so  often  remind 
us,  marriage  came,  not  to  the  single  alone,  but  to 
widows  and  widowers ;  for  home  was  an  institution  so 
essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  race  that  neither  man 
nor  woman  could  well  live  comfortably  without  it. 
Sports  and  recreations,  too,  which  brought  the  young 
and  bashful  of  both  sexes  together  turned  largely  upon 
the  mimic  choice  of  a  partner ;  the  unmated  one  of  the 
game,  the  odd  number,  was  the  butt  of  a  company. 
And  so  did  village  ridicule  pursue  most  keenly  the 
mincing  spinster  or  the  crusty  old  bachelor.1 

Since  labor  found  ready  recompense  in  these  days, 
and  simple  station  made  simple  social  life,  our 
marriages  were  early  and  prolific.  The  young  paired 
for  themselves  and  made  love  matches,  struggling  up 
ward  through  poverty  together.  Unmarried  daughters 
remained  and  served  in  the  parental  abode ;  for  women 
found  mostly  their  sphere  in  farm  or  household  work. 
Sons,  however,  shifted  naturally  for  themselves,  and 
by  subdivision  of  the  paternal  farm  found  place  for 
their  own  new  homes;  mating,  multiplying  and  build 
ing  apart,  or  restlessly  seeking  out  new  scenes,  per 
chance  to  make  new  fortunes.  Each  town  and  com 
munity  stood  firmly  banded  in  upholding  God's  holy 
institution,  though  Protestants  sternly  denied  the 
Roman  Catholic  doctrine  that  marriage  was  a  sacra 
ment,  declared  it  a  mere  contract,  and  schemed  already 
a  freedom  both  in  making  and  dissolving  the  marriage 
tie  that  threatened  a  future  laxity.  In  general,  mar 
riage  was  celebrated  simply  enough,  as  befitted  the 

1In  1756,  under  pressure  of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  Mary 
land  levied  a  tax  upon  all  bachelors  of  25  years  and  upwards, 
classifying  the  rates  by  their  several  fortunes. 


BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES  AND   DEATHS      37 

social  custom  of  the  times;  but  station  and  circum 
stances  made  variations.  In  some  leading  centres,  like 
Philadelphia,  marriage  feasting  among  the  fashionable 
was  thought  extravagant;  for  hosts  would  send  out 
cake  and  meats  to  neighbors  who  had  not  been  invited 
to  the  wedding,  besides  indulging  their  guests.  Com 
plaint,  too,  was  made  that  the  married  pair  were  kept 
too  long  before  the  gathered  company,  exposed  to 
rough  banter.  It  was  common  for  the  colonial  press, 
when  announcing  a  marriage  in  high  life,  to  compli 
ment  the  bride  in  set  phrase  as  "a  young  lady  of  great 
merit,  with  every  accomplishment  conducive  to  the 
happiness  of  the  marriage  state." 

The  old  common  law  of  coverture  adjusted  thus 
early  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  married  life — a  sys 
tem,  by  the  way,  far  less  harsh  of  operation  than  is 
generally  supposed,  and  tolerable  enough  where  the 
husband  does  his  part  well  as  family  provider,  and  little 
personal  property  is  brought  to  the  marriage  on  either 
side.  Real  estate,  that  only  inheritance  of  dignity  in 
earlier  times,  was  fairly  preserved  to  the  wife's  blood 
relatives  by  our  English  law  where  she  brought  land 
to  the  marriage  and  died  childless.  But  the  husband 
was  head  of  the  house,  and  ruled  the  family  after  the 
Christian  dispensation  as  preached  by  Peter  and  Paul. 
For  divorce  from  the  bond  there  was  little  show, 
whether  wife  or  husband  had  misconducted,  nor  was 
legalized  separation  frequent  yet  or  easy  to  procure. 
Man's  discipline,  if  stern  and  masterful,  compelling 
wife  and  children  to  obey,  might  be  just  and  consider 
ate  notwithstanding. 

But  infelicities  occurred,  as  they  always  may  in  the 
marriage  state,  and  now  and  then  might  be  seen  a 
husband  publishing  his  wife  in  the  local  paper  for 


38  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

desertion,  and  refusing  to  pay  a  farthing  of  any  debt 
she  might  contract  while  absent.  "She  has  left  my 
bed  and  board,"  complains  one  husband;  "she  has 
eloped,"  says  another;  "she  has  been  very  unfriendly 
to  me,"  says  a  third ;  "she  has  behaved  badly  with  other 
men  and  unseemly,"  says  a  fourth,  "and  her  im 
prudence  has  reduced  me  to  great  poverty  and  dis 
tress.'7  One  forsaken  advertiser  makes  pertinent  cita 
tion  from  i  Corinthians  7:  10,  n;  another  threatens 
the  law  against  all  persons  who  may  harbor  his  runa 
way  partner;  while  still  another  offers  to  reward  any 
one  who  will  land  the  seducer  in  jail,  so  that  he  may  be 
prosecuted.  The  wife  sometimes  responded  in  print  to 
the  husband's  accusation.  One  fair  spouse  retorts  that 
the  husband  became  an  insolvent,  and  had  used  up  the 
whole  income  of  her  inheritance  from  her  father  before 
she  left  him ;  another  alleges  sadly  that  she  never  left 
his  home  until  compelled  to  do  so  by  his  cruel  and  in 
human  treatment  in  abusing  and  kicking  her  about. 
"I  never  ran  him  in  debt  one  farthing,"  responds  a  third 
indignantly ;  "neither  has  he  ever  purchased  me  or  his 
infant  child  one  article  of  clothing,  except  two  or  three 
pairs  of  shoes,  for  almost  two  years."  And  once  again 
we  see  an  unhappy  wife  publishing  to  the  world  that 
she  had  left  her  husband  because  he  deprived  her  of 
the  barest  necessities  of  life  and  forced  her  to  do  servile 
work,  such  as  taking  constant  care  of  the  cattle  during 
the  cold  winter  months;  and  this  one  appends  an  affi 
davit  he  had  made  shortly  before,  which  acknowledged 
her  conjugal  goodness  and  obedience  and  his  own  fault 
toward  her.  Thus  again  does  the  press  of  that  century 
show  how  prone  were  our  people  to  invoke  public  opin 
ion  in  their  private  differences.  Reconciliation  healed 
happily  some  of  such  distressing  feuds ;  while  Christian 


BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES  AND   DEATHS      39 

forbearance  and  a  sense  of  duty,  not  to  add  the  wish 
to  keep  up  appearances  (always  strong  in  the  feminine 
mind),  checked  or  prevented  many  others. 


Marriage  in  this  simple  and  sincere  age  was  not  only 
stable  as  an  institution,  but  remarkably  prolific;  and 
such  must  be  the  usual  incident  of  domestic  life  in  a 
new  country  where  they  who  marry  are  robust,  and 
an  offspring  builds  up  society  and  increases  the  com 
mon  means  of  livelihood.  No  advertiser  figured  more 
constantly  in  the  local  wants  of  that  day  than  the  wet 
nurse  with  a  good  breast  of  milk ;  and  so  popular  was 
midwifery  that  one  Mrs.  Hallelujah  Olney,  a  zealous 
anti-psedo  Baptist  and  most  estimable  widow  lady,  who 
died  in  1771  at  Providence,  after  having  practised  her 
profession  for  thirty-six  years,  was  said,  in  an  obituary 
notice,  to  have  introduced  into  existence  upwards  of 
3000  children.  The  midwife  took  commonly  the  place 
of  a  doctor ;  and  one  in  New  London  was  said  to  have 
delivered  1200  children  in  her  day  and  never  lost  one. 
Franklin,  it  is  remembered,  was  the  fifteenth  in  due 
order  out  of  seventeen  children,  and  a  son  of  his 
father's  second  wife;  and  we  shall  find  various  other 
marriages  of  that  era  equally  prolific  if  we  trace  back 
the  genealogy  of  almost  any  of  the  famous  families 
among  our  early  settlers.  For  the  first  object  of  every 
new  colony  in  the  wilderness  has  been  to  increase  and 
multiply,  assuaging  life's  dulness.  Men  started  in  life 
as  founders,  they  lived  to  be  patriarchs.  And  the  long- 
lived  pioneer  gloried  in  such  distinction.  Of  a  worthy 
man  who  died  in  1771  it  was  printed,  first  that  he  had 
kept  a  grist-mill  for  seventy-one  years  and  never  took 
more  toll  than  the  law  allowed;  next  that  he  left  a 


40  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

progeny  of  108,  in  children,  grandchildren  and  great 
grandchildren.  Another  dweller  in  Massachusetts,  a 
deacon,  had  died  three  years  earlier,  in  his  eighty- 
fourth  year;  "his  life  was  exemplary,  his  departure  in 
firm  hope  of  a  glorious  immortality ;  his  progeny  were 
numerous."  In  fact,  it  was  stated  that  this  pioneer  left 
157  of  his  issue  alive,  including  five  great-grand-chil 
dren.  Another  colonial  veteran,  older  by  ten  years, 
dying  about  the  same  time,  saw  those  of  his  fifth  gener 
ation  before  closing  his  eyes  upon  the  world.1 

In  spite,  then,  of  all  decimation  by  exposure  to 
casualty  and  disease,  Americans  of  both  sexes  in  this 
era  had  strong  constitutions  and  often  lived — the  men 
especially — until  long  after  fourscore,  witnessing  the 
growth  and  spread  of  the  families  they  had  founded, 
and  widening  immensely  their  own  personal  influence 
through  multiplied  offspring  and  marriage  ties.  Many 
a  New  England  Thanksgiving  or  a  New  York  Christ 
mas  of  that  era  must  have  brought  a  family  reunion 
indeed — enough,  one  would  fancy,  to  burst  the  rafters 
of  the  old  dwelling-house  and  cause  the  very  walls  to 
bulge;  and  everywhere  the  buttress  of  a  home  com 
munity  must  have  resisted  all  undue  coercion  from  ex 
ternal  society.  Households  were  united,  though  not 
demonstrative  always  in  mutual  affection.  The  pater 
nal  head  made  his  authority  respected ;  sons,  when  old 
enough,  were  pushed  out  like  young  squabs  from  the 
nest,  to  fly  and  mate  for  themselves;  while  daughters 
found  there  a  sure  shelter  and  refuge  against  the 

a"Died  in  peace  in  1771,  at  Wilmington,  Delaware,"  says  a 
local  press,  "a  pious,  elderly  matron,  who  had  been  mother  of 
16  children,  all  married  and  comfortable ;  68  grandchildren,  166 
great-grandchildren,  and  4  great-great-grandchildren — in  all  238 
living  offspring — survived  her:  the  generation  of  the  just  shall  be 
blessed." 


BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES  AND   DEATHS      41 

possible  ills  and  failures  of  life.  Family  discipline,  if 
stern  and  repressive,  was  conscientious,  grounded  on 
Bible  precept  and  example ;  and  parents  aimed  honestly 
to  bring  up  their  offspring  to  lives  of  usefulness  and 
honor. 

Chastellux,  visiting  this  country  toward  the  close  of 
the  Revolution,  was  impressed  by  the  comfort  and 
simplicity  of  our  domestic  life — by  that  "sweet  and 
serene  state  of  happiness,"  so  he  styles  it,  "which 
appears  to  have  taken  refuge  in  the  New  World."  And 
again,  he  observes,  "there  is  no  licentiousness  in 
America."  Surely,  here  were  seen  none  of  those  Love 
laces  of  rakish  inclination,  such  as  Richardson  and 
other  novelists  of  that  era  portrayed  so  vividly  for 
London,  whose  idle  game  of  life  seemed  chiefly  to  con 
sist  in  intriguing  for  the  ruin  of  virtuous  women.  So 
much  of  the  common  concern,  indeed,  was  absorbed 
in  the  domestic  pursuits  of  life  that  social  scandals 
related  most  to  the  mishaps  of  lovemaking.  And  for 
matches  that  turned  out  ill-suited  and  miserable,  social 
compassion  gave  without  cynicism  its  alleviating  sym 
pathy  ;  while  the  aggrieved  one  sought  first  of  all  that 
medicine,  more  potent  for  the  soul's  lasting  good  than 
the  surgery  of  divorce  can  ever  afford — to  make  the 
best  of  things. 


The  whole  tendency,  then,  of  our  primitive  American 
life  was  to  develop  the  natural  affections  and  make 
people  neighborly  and  helpful  to  one  another,  recog 
nizing  those  common  joys  and  sorrows  of  humanity 
of  which  all  ages  and  conditions  partook.  Hence,  and 
because,  too,  of  the  strong  religious  sentiment  of  a 
Christian  people,  much  was  made  of  individual  death 


42  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

and  of  paying  last  tributes  to  the  departed.  The  here 
after,  with  its  rewards  and  punishments,  was  the  goal 
upon  which  most  had  set  their  minds  as  readers  of  the 
Bible  and  devout  believers;  and  at  each  exit  of  life  was 
an  earthly  judgment  to  be  passed  in  the  little  com 
munity,  forecasting  the  Divine,  with  preaching  of 
sermon  and  exhortation,  according  as  the  example  was 
felt  for  good  or  evil.  It  still  holds  true  in  our  remote 
Atlantic  villages  that  a  funeral  brings  neighbors  to 
gether  more  readily  than  any  other  private  occasion. 
We  smile  at  the  quaint  epitaphs  on  tombstones  of  that 
earlier  century;  yet  the  "amiable  consort"  and  those 
other  high-flown  terms  of  endearing  expression  were 
set  phrases  of  the  day,  and  a  certain  elegiac  strain  of 
tombstone  expression  took  its  usual  pitch  from  a  local 
pastor's  discourse  or  the  conventional  tributes  of 
friends  and  relatives  in  the  newspapers.  In  that  age 
of  sermonizing,  funeral  sermons  preached  on  the 
sombre  occasions  of  bereavement  were  widely 'printed 
and  read;  and  obituaries  dwelt  much  more  than  our 
present  fashion  would  commend  upon  the  details  of 
death-bed  suffering  or  of  some  lingering  illness.  Obitu 
ary  rhetoric  shaped  its  expression  in  prose  or  poetry 
with  intensity  of  seriousness : 

"Her  hearse  moved  slow  and  sad  to  meet  the  tomb, 
While  real  sorrow  sat  on  every  plume ; 
While  many  groans  her  dear  remains  convey 
To  her  cold  lodging  in  her  bed  of  clay." 

One  funeral  sermon  sets  figuratively  forth  the  dying 
utterances  of  a  good  woman  of  the  flock :  "With  these 
words  she  closed  her  mortal  drama;  her  next  were 
heard  in  Heaven."  And,  to  quote  the  eulogy  of  a  dis 
tinguished  officer  who  died  in  Philadelphia  in  1772: 
"There  scarce  appeared  a  struggle  between  soul  and 


BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES   AND   DEATHS      43 

body  at  parting.  The  former  in  an  instant  took  its 
flight  to  the  realm  of  spirits,  and  the  latter  without 
a  groan  dropped  down  to  embrace  its  kindred  earth." 

Press  and  the  pulpit  alike  in  colonial  times  made 
note  of  the  death  lesson  to  be  inculcated  upon  the 
living.  Seeing  the  remains  was  an  important  incident 
of  every  well-ordered  funeral,  as  it  usually  is,  perhaps, 
to  this  day;  and  in  various  presses  the  versifier  was 
seen  arousing  his  Muse  "on  seeing,"  or  even  "upon  a 
supposed  view  of"  the  corpse.  So  important,  withal, 
in  a  public  sense,  were  these  last  functions  of  mortality, 
that  funerals  in  the  winter  time  were  sometimes  an 
nounced  to  take  place  on  a  certain  date  with  express 
reservation  as  to  the  weather. 

Mortal  sickness,  with,  if  need  be,  its  long-drawn 
ailment  and  suffering,  was  met  in  this  age  with  forti 
tude  and  Christian  resignation.  A  suicide  was  some 
times  seen  reported,  but  self-destruction  was  then  very 
rare.  The  sane  and  prosaic  routine  of  life,  incessant 
industry,  the  manifold  family  ties — all  aided  conscien 
tious  views  of  a  hereafter  and  of  man's  moral  account 
ability.  Christianity  opposes  the  thought  of  suicide 
and  leaves  the  mortal  chances  to  one's  Maker.  And 
the  old  English  law  still  widely  obtained  in  these 
colonies,  which  denied  a  Christian  burial  to  such  as  took 
their  own  lives. 

We  read  much  of  enamelled  mourning  rings,  such 
as  were  then  worn  considerably  by  friends  and  rela 
tives;  also  of  distributing  "scarfs"  and  gloves.  In  the 
dress  and  decorations  for  funerals  of  high  personages 
some  incongruous  outlays  were  incurred  for  friends  as 
well  as  family.  More  incongruous  still  was  apt  to  be 
the  lavish  expenditure  for  refreshments — in  punch  and 
hot  wine  particularly.  Families  themselves  might  be 


44  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

very  large,  reckoning  alone  the  near  relatives  by  blood 
and  marriage;  yet  open  hospitality  at  funerals  went 
much  farther.  Agitation  arose,  in  fact,  touching  the 
customary  funeral  expenses,  as  trouble  dawned  with 
the  mother  country  and  our  colonists  felt  the  pinch  of 
approaching  poverty. 

The  loved  one  was  laid  tenderly  to  rest  in  the  family 
vault  or  churchyard  lot;  or  perhaps  in  some  God's 
acre  specially  fenced  off  from  one's  own  farm  or  planta 
tion,  or  in  some  larger  parcel  of  land  laid  out  for  gen 
eral  use.  Pagan  cremation,  which  sets  economy 
against  feeling  or  sentiment,  and  ignores  the  resurrec 
tion  of  the  body,  if  not  resurrection  altogether,  had  of 
course  no  charm  for  these  simpler  Christians;  and  to 
all  laboratory  methods  of  human  disposal  is  the  objec 
tion  that  they  blunt  the  finer  sensibilities  and  may  even 
tempt  to  murderous  experiment  upon  the  dying,  whose 
heirs  are  impatient.  Leave  tenderly  the  remains  of 
our  fellow-mortal  for  nature's  own  methods  of  decay 
to  operate,  and  we  trust  to  God  and  assume,  at  least,  no 
personal  responsibility  to  meddle.  Perhaps,  however, 
the  evangelism  of  this  earlier  age  invoked  too  read 
ily  the  horrors  of  the  grave,  as  of  death  itself,  to  arouse 
the  living  to  repentance.  It  was  "Hark !  from  the 
tombs  a  doleful  sound !"  The  idea  came  later  to  us  of 
large  and  attractive  cemeteries,  like  Mount  Auburn, 
Forest  Hills,  Greenwood,  Laurel,  Oak  Hill — reposeful 
cities  of  the  dead,  where  art  and  nature  blend  their 
landscape  charms  with  choice  marble  and  granite 
monuments  to  foster  the  hope  of  a  common  immor 
tality  and  teach  the  living  to  cherish  the  memory  of 
the  departed.  For  the  churchyard  fitly  protects  its 
parish  dead  only  while  the  mute  environs  linger  un 
changed  through  rural  generations,  as  in  Stoke-Pogis 


BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES  AND   DEATHS      45 

of  our  old  English  home,  which  inspired  the  noblest 
elegy  of  our  tongue  that  poetic  art  ever  chiselled  into 
expression. 

One  of  the  stateliest  public  funerals  of  colonial  times 
took  place  in  Virginia  in  1 770,  when  Lord  Botetourt — 
a  nobleman  much  beloved  and  a  governor  of  that  prov 
ince — was  buried.  At  Williamsburg,  the  little  capital 
of  that  oldest  colony,  the  bells  tolled,  and  dignitaries, 
with  the  military,  repaired  together  to  the  "palace"  or 
mansion-house  in  early  afternoon.  The  corpse,  en 
closed  in  its  leaden  coffin,  adorned  with  silver  handles 
and  a  silver  plate,  was  placed  upon  a  hearse,  and  the 
solemn  procession  marched  to  the  church.  Two  mutes 
preceded  on  each  side  of  the  hearse,  outward  of  whom 
walked  the  pallbearers,  comprising  six  of  his  Majesty's 
council,  with  the  Honorable  Speaker  and  Richard 
Bland,  Esq.,  of  the  House  of  Burgesses;  his  Excel 
lency's  servants,  in  deep  mourning,  attended  also,  with 
the  gentlemen  of  the  clergy,  the  professors  of  William 
and  Mary  College,  the  clerk  of  the  church  and  the 
organist  besides.  Immediately  after  the  hearse  thus 
attended  (so  the  newspaper  tells  us)  came  the  chief 
mourners,  the  faculty  of  the  college  following,  and 
the  mayor,  recorder  and  aldermen  of  Williamsburg 
with  the  mace  borne  before  them ;  the  gentlemen  of  the 
law  and  the  clerk  of  the  general  court.  For  the  colony, 
the  capital,  the  college  itself,  all  bore  the  names  of 
British  kings  and  queens.  Students  of  William  and 
Mary  College  who  had  been  detailed  as  ushers  wore 
white  hat-bands  and  gloves;  and  behind  all  these  a 
numerous  body  of  citizens  brought  up  the  rear  of  the 
procession,  walking  two  and  two.  In  the  church,  which 
was  of  the  established  English  faith,  a  black  carpet 
had  been  spread  for  the  coffin,  which  was  covered  with 


46  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

crimson  velvet,  while  the  burial  service  was  read ;  altar, 
pulpit  and  his  Excellency's  pew  were  hung  suitably  in 
black.  Following  a  sermon,  the  mournful  procession 
resumed  its  march  through  William  and  Mary's 
grounds  to  a  chapel,  where  the  remains  were  deposited 
in  a  vault,  the  militia  outside  firing  three  volleys  as  a 
parting  salute.  The  council  and  House  of  Burgesses 
went  into  deep  mourning  for  Lord  Botetourt,  and  so, 
too,  as  their  spontaneous  expression,  did  many  gentle 
men  of  the  colony ;  for  this  nobleman  had  made  a  highly 
estimable  governor  of  Virginia,  and  his  loss  was  deeply 
deplored. 


The  exaggeration  of  grief  witnessed  in  the  funeral 
and  burial  rites  of  our  ancestors  may  provoke  an  irrev 
erent  age  to  mirth.  For  unless  one's  sympathies  go 
freely  out  to  the  dead  or  his  survivors,  the  aspect  of 
mourning  brings  overstrain,  and  the  tear  and  the  smile 
come  shamefully  close  together.  Pompous  homage 
ceases,  and  with  all  but  the  few,  worthily  illustrious 
beyond  their  times,  the  torch  dies  out  and  mortals,  great 
or  humble,  slumber  alike  forgotten.  The  casual 
rambler  of  a  later  age  takes  somewhat  of  a  sardonic 
delight  in  thinking  how  little  the  graven  titles  or  trib 
utes  to  the  departed  one  can  give  passports  to  dis 
tinction  in  another  world.  But  where  these  old  tomb 
stones  make  most  a  kindred  mourner  of  casual  pos 
terity  is  in  the  family  group  of  graves  whose  inscrip 
tions  reveal  the  universal  hope  that  husband,  wife  and 
little  ones,  once  united,  shall  yet  unite  again.  From 
such  a  point  of  view,  let  us  bless  forever  the  old  de 
parted  of  our  pioneer  age.  Though  the  individual 
record  of  such  lives  may  have  perished  from  human 


BIRTHS,   MARRIAGES  AND   DEATHS      47 

annals,  we  surely  feel  that  they  have  left  to  the  future 
generations  a  conjugal  and  parental  example  worthy 
the  tenderest  commemoration.  For  these  men  and 
women  were  the  breeders  and  fosterers  of  a  great 
people ;  they  sowed  in  our  soil  the  seed  that  germinated 
into  the  grandest  democratic  experiment  the  world  has 
yet  witnessed.  Their  life  companionship  was  that  of 
rugged  toil,  of  noble  endeavor  to  lead  pious  lives  and 
bring  up  an  offspring  in  that  fear  of  God  which  the 
Bible  tells  us  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom  and  under 
standing.  Their  households  were  wholesome ;  they 
lived  among  neighbors  without  reproach;  they  died — 

"On  resurrection's  morn  to  rise, 
And  meet  the  Lord   with   sweet   surprise." 


HOUSES  AND  HOMES 

THE  land  tenure  of  these  colonies,  varying  as  it 
did  under  one  charter  settlement  or  another, 
came  to  affect  powerfully  the  political  char 
acter  of  their  respective  peoples.  In  one  respect,  this 
tenure  differed  greatly  from  that  in  Great  Britain :  the 
iron  impress  of  the  feudal  system  was  wanting.  In 
stead  of  being  vassals  and  feudatories,  theoretically, 
under  some  lord  paramount,  men  owned  their  land  in 
fee,  unincumbered  by  those  onerous  tributes  which  the 
military  despotism  of  the  middle  ages  had  exacted  in 
Europe.  Our  land  tenure  on  this  North  Atlantic  slope 
was  essentially  modern,  and  the  freedom  and  facility 
of  acquiring  a  full  title  in  the  individual  favored  here 
the  condition  of  freehold  farmer  rather  than  of  a  mere 
tenant,  lessee  or  occupier  and  tiller  of  acres  owned  by 
a  landlord. 

In  Europe  at  that  day  the  whole  fabric  of  rank  and 
privilege  rested  upon  the  unequal  distribution  of  land. 
As  to  these  thirteen  colonies,  the  British  Crown  had 
given  out  patents  originally  to  chartered  companies, 
to  lord  proprietors,  to  royal  favorites ;  not  unfrequently 
conveying  the  same  lands  twice  or  thrice  over,  so  that 
titles  were  conflicting.  The  primitive  grantees  in  New 
England,  however,  laid  out  their  lands  as  wise  founders 
of  a  commonwealth.  In  Plymouth,  in  Massachusetts 


HC  USES  AND   HOMES  49 

Bay,  and  in  the  later  settlements  planned  through  such 
precious  example,  real  estate  was  run  into  contiguous 
tracts  ten  miles  square,  called  townships,  and  then 
granted  by  the  governing  authority  to  forty  or  fifty 
proprietors  jointly,  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever,  with 
obligation  to  build  a  church  and  schoolhouse.  A 
settler,  unless  selling  out,  would  subdivide  to  his  chil 
dren,  and  those  in  turn  to  theirs;  the  soil  became 
minutely  partitioned  for  cultivation  and  improvement, 
and  republics  flourished  on  a  basis  of  equal  rights. 
"Every  one  in  the  New  England  colonies  is  a  free 
holder,"  observed  a  London  press  writer  in  1767,  "and 
enjoys  more  liberty  than  any  other  people  in  Europe 
and  America." 

But  in  the  middle  and  southern  colonies  less  of  a 
township  system  existed,  and  great  inequalities  pre 
vailed  by  comparison.  Thus,  in  New  York,  the  Crown 
had  made  to  individuals  enormous  grants  of  twenty 
miles  square,  and  much  the  same  held  true  in  New 
Jersey.  Patroons,  lords  of  the  manor,  built  their 
castles  on  the  Hudson  like  another  Rhine;  and  one  of 
these,  Van  Rensselaer,  used  to  bring  a  New  York 
sheriff  with  his  armed  posse  to  drive  off  the  intruders 
on  his  domain.  Pennsylvania  was  one  grand  domain 
bestowed  by  Charles  II.  upon  William  Penn ;  and  here 
millions  of  acres  paid  a  quit-rent  to  the  family  pro 
prietor.  Maryland's  Lord  Baltimore,  too,  had  enjoyed 
the  princely  benefaction  of  a  Stuart  as  proprietor  of 
the  colony.  In  Virginia  and  the  remaining  British 
provinces  to  the  southward  a  plantation  system  spread 
over  extensive  tracts  of  fertile  land  for  the  raising  of 
great  staples  for  export.  Yet  in  the  general  competi 
tion  to  induce  a  settlement,  local  faults  of  tenure  were 
somewhat  modified  in  these  colonies,  and  all  things 


50  AMERICANS  OF  17V6 

tended,  among  English-speaking  freemen  at  least,  to 
political  equality. 

Our  population  still  clung  to  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
its  tributary  rivers ;  nor  were  the  backwoods  (with  wild 
beasts  and  Indians)  far  remote  as  yet,  though  gradu 
ally  receding  into  the  interior.  Bears  in  1766  infested 
Hartford  considerably,  causing  great  havoc  among 
sheep  and  swine;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  that 
year  pursued  and  shot  a  large  one  and  roasted  it  whole. 
A  "tiger  or  panther"  had  been  reported  at  Fishkill, 
New  York,  the  year  before.  Wolves,  too,  imperilled 
various  frontier  towns  of  New  England  and  Northern 
New  York  and  destroyed  sheep  by  the  hundreds.  "In 
formers  of  deer"  were  among  the  town  officers  still 
annually  elected  in  Boston  and  its  vicinity.  Bears,  as 
late  as  1750,  or  even  later,  were  reported  shot  in  the 
suburbs  of  Philadelphia. 

Farms  were  frequently  managed  on  the  halves,  the 
owner  thus  getting  readily  his  part  profit  on  the 
produce  in  lieu  of  a  rental.  Out  in  the  wilderness  the 
new  settler  swung  his  axe,  that  prime  weapon  of 
progress,  more  potent  even  than  the  rifle.  Felling  trees 
was  the  first  pioneer  occupation,  that  the  rich  new  soil 
might  open  its  bosom  to  the  sun  and  air  and  fructify 
abundantly.  Too  much  wood  was  cut,  however,  and 
cut  ruthlessly;  and  we  are  now  only  just  beginning  to 
learn  that  forests  should  be  preserved  and  cultivated 
as  a  permanent  investment,  by  careful  choice  and  selec 
tion  for  harvest,  leaving  a  new  growth  to  come  up. 
For  fuel,  for  building,  too,  trees  were  useful  enough  to 
the  neighboring  proprietor;  but  where  one  could  not 
transport  far  to  find  a  market  for  his  lumber,  he  would 
hack  and  destroy  without  discrimination,  so  as  to  make 
room  for  raising  quickly  his  crop  of  Indian  corn.  Yet 


HOUSES  AND   HOMES  51 

the  woods  of  our  American  wilderness  were  vast  in 
those  days,  and  spoliation  did  as  yet  little,  compara 
tively,  of  visible  damage.1 


Homes  and  habitations  in  every  age  and  country 
typify  the  civilized  condition  of  their  local  dwellers. 
At  the  date  we  are  considering,  America  had  advanced 
to  the  stage  of  a  fixed  and  permanent  body  of  inhabi 
tants,  many  of  whom  were  affluent  and  of  high  social 
influence;  while  most  possessed  at  least  the  means  of  an 
honest  livelihood.  Public  protection  against  Indian 
assaults  was  no  longer  needful  in  our  older  towns  and 
settlements;  and  the  stockades  of  heavy  logs,  once  the 
common  resort  of  inhabitants  in  time  of  danger,  had 
disappeared. 

English  men  and  women  wanted  English  homes,  just 
as  the  Dutch,  our  first  settlers  of  New  York,  conformed 
to  the  quaint  patterns  of  Holland — all  alike  seeking 
reminders  of  their  old  country.  By  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  then,  and  before  our  Revolu 
tion,  were  fine  mansion-houses  solidly  and  well  built 
of  wood,  brick  or  stone,  in  which  abode  persons  of 
quality,  many  of  them  staunch  Tories  and  Loyalists. 
The  Craigie  house  in  Cambridge,  Washington's  head 
quarters,  and  later  the  peaceful  abode  of  our  poet,  Long 
fellow;  the  Hancock  house  in  Boston,  which  some  of 
us  still  remember ;  the  brick  Chase  mansion,  and  others 
of  a  like  pattern  in  old  Annapolis ;  Mount  Vernon  and 

^hastellux,  in  1780,  deplored  this  wholesale  forest  destruction; 
pioneers,  he  thought,  should  disperse  their  settlements  more,  so 
as  not  simply  to  clear  the  land,  but  to  clear  while  keeping  intact 
the  woods  as  a  reservoir  to  preserve  the  earth's  moisture. 
While  visiting  Monticello,  he  saw  distant  forest  fires,  which 
ravaged  until  the  next  heavy  rain. 


52  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Monticello  in  Virginia — these  may  suffice  for  example 
among  the  many  fine  specimens  of  English  colonial 
homes  in  one  province  or  another.  There  was  a  simple 
dignity  in  such  abodes,  heightened  by  the  ample  acreage 
they  occupied.  For  a  certain  aspect  of  court  life  gave 
a  glory  to  the  social  set  that  was  wont  to  gather  in  the 
capital  towns  of  these  provinces  about  the  royal  gov 
ernor;  and  there  did  the  pride  of  the  wealthy  find  a 
British  expression,  as  also  in  the  maintenance  of  fine 
country  seats,  with  spacious  grounds,  fit  domiciles  for 
an  aspiring  gentry. 

Yet  for  generous  visiting  and  merrymaking,  these 
colonial  mansions,  with  some  notable  exceptions,  were 
less  roomy  and  spacious  in  their  internal  arrangement 
than  we  are  apt  to  imagine,  especially  when  we  con 
sider  the  immense  family  of  one's  own  progeny  that 
might  be  reared  and  brought  up  under  a  single  roof, 
to  return  with  their  own  offspring  for  the  holidays 
after  being  once  scattered.  Mount  Vernon,  first  among 
our  historic  mansions,  was,  after  all,  of  but  moderate 
size  and  commodiousness  in  the  Revolutionary  times, 
except  for  its  detached  kitchen  and  servants'  quarters; 
most  of  the  housekeeping  being  carried  on  outside  the 
main  building.  And  coming  down  to  the  less  imposing 
homes  of  ancestors  less  affluent,  but  more  prolific,  one 
stands  in  tranquil  Lexington  at  the  famous  house 
whence  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  emerged  in  flight 
near  the  dawn  of  that  memorable  April  morning, 
and  marvels  that  four  small  walls  should  have  en 
compassed,  besides  these  illustrious  guests,  the  goodly 
family  of  a  country  parson,  grown  folks,  children  and 
servants. 

Surely,  in  those  days,  and  among  such  Americans 
as  claimed  but  a  modest  competence,  young  and  old 


HOUSES  AND   HOMES  53 

must  have  doubled  up  in  the  halls  and  chambers  at 
night,  and  rafters  rung  by  day  with  merriment  and 
noise  on  an  anniversary  occasion.  For,  after  all,  the 
dwelling-houses  of  our  colonial  age  rarely  exceeded 
two  stories  in  height,  with  other  chambers  finished  off 
in  the  roof;  while  often  enough  the  final  accommoda 
tions  stopped  at  the  second  story.  A  few  of  the  more 
stately  mansions,  however,  made  a  good  three  stories, 
exclusive  of  the  roof,  and  occupied  an  ample  area  in 
square  feet  besides,  with  a  garden  curtilage.  Before 
and  after  the  Revolution  some  extravagant  dwelling- 
house  in  town  would  be  put  up  to  bankrupt  its  pro 
prietor,  and  neighbors  dubbed  it  his  "folly/'1 

For  building  material,  brick  was  already  much  used 
in  the  middle  and  southern  colonies,  being  readily  made 
there  and  well  burned ;  while  in  and  about  Philadelphia 
stone  was  a  common  and  convenient  substitute.  New 
York  by  1750  was  well  up  in  its  building  styles,  as  in 
everything  else.  Charleston,  *after  a  great  fire  in  1740, 
rebuilt  in  brick,  with  better  taste  than  before;  and  in 
this  palmetto  region  the  Spanish  concrete  came  also 
into  use,  composed  of  oyster  shells,  sand  and  water; 
and  the  soil  serving  well  for  brick,  lime  of  the  oyster- 
shell  was  used  for  mortar.  New  England,  however, 
clung  long  to  its  lumber  materials ;  and  though  a  choice 
mansion  of  stone  or  imported  brick  might  be  visible 
there  thus  early,  dwelling-houses  were  commonly  of 
wood,  even  in  the  largest  towns.  Boston  was  highly 
inflammable,  and  as  late  as  1795  travellers  marvelled 
at  its  many  wooden  buildings,  which  stood  endwise 
toward  the  street.  These  wooden  houses  went  largely 

1See  mention  of  one  such  in  Baltimore,  in  1754,  whose  owner 
presently  turned  it  over  to  the  town  as  a  small-pox  hospital, 
evidently  meaning  never  to  live  in  it  again. 


54  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

unpainted  through  the  distressful  days  of  war,  and 
took  on  a  dingy  aspect. 

American  houses  were  in  those  days  advertised  for 
sale  or  rent  with  two,  three  and  sometimes  four  rooms 
on  a  floor;  with  a  pump  and  well,  outhouses  or  a  wood 
shed,  and  a  back  yard,  sometimes  paved.  A  genteel 
house  had  its  cellar,  too ;  but  basement  or  cellar  kitchens 
scarcely  yet  existed.  It  was  quite  common  to  carry  on 
one's  trade  or  manual  pursuit  in  his  own  dwelling. 
Both  sexes  grew  apt,  moreover,  in  the  variety  of  de 
mands  made  where  skilled  labor  was  not  to  be  readily 
had  and  economy  was  needful.  Men  built  and  repaired 
their  own  houses ;  the  women  folk  kept  those  houses  in 
order  inside,  and  made  up  clothing  for  young  and  old. 
Almost  every  small  householder  could  turn  his  hand  to 
painting,  carpentry  and  petty  repairs ;  and  such  was  the 
universal  reliance  placed  upon  the  mutual  disposition 
to  mutual  help  that  neighbors  would  turn  out  and  join 
in  a  house  or  barn  raising  whenever  called  upon, 
asking  only  the  treat  of  a  broached  cask  of  cider  or  a 
gallon  of  rum. 

Grand  parks  and  grounds  artistically  laid  out  with 
flower  beds  were  not  to  be  expected  among  so  plain 
and  primitive  a  people.  Nature  made  her  own  adorn 
ment.  Even  the  rich  planter  lived  in  a  sort  of  easy 
indolence  upon  his  broad  acres,  among  rude  laborers 
who  had  no  tasteful  ideas  to  impart;  and  our  sons  of 
Adam  elsewhere  were  mostly  intent  upon  those  prod 
ucts  of  the  soil  that  yield  an  essential  livelihood. 
Boston's  common,  unique  in  picturesqueness,  was  some 
thing  of  a  public  pleasure-ground,  and  so  was  the 
battery  in  New  York;  but  Philadelphia,  our  chief 
metropolis,  had  not  a  single  promenade  or  enclosure  to 
give  comfort  and  recreation  to  its  citizens.  In  many  a 


HOUSES  AND   HOMES  55 

little  town  the  village  green  or  common  served  for 
holiday  sport  or  parade;  yet,  after  all,  one  found  the 
chief  solace  of  toil,  as  well  as  the  dainties  of  life,  in 
his  own  private  orchard  or  garden.  People  raised  for 
the  table  their  own  plums,  peaches,  pears,  apricots, 
apples,  cherries  and  currants ;  and  in  the  kitchen  garden 
their  own  potatoes,  corn,  beans  and  asparagus ;  flowers 
they  cultivated  to  some  extent  besides. 


The  church  or  meeting-house  shared  usually  with 
court-house  or  town-house  the  honor  of  safeguarding 
the  inhabitants.  Williamsburg,  of  old  Virginia,  had  its 
provincial  capitol  of  two  stories  at  one  end  of  the  main 
street;  while  the  other  end  was  occupied  by  William 
and  Mary  College.  No  native  city  or  town  of  this  age 
was  so  cosmopolitan  that  a  stray  horse,  or  a  cow  with 
a  bell  about  her  neck,  might  not  be  seen  wandering  on 
the  highway,  to  say  nothing  of  domestic  goats  or  swine, 
less  comely,  that  long  did  scavenger  work  in  streets 
with  a  surface  drainage.  Philadelphia's  paving  pro 
gressed  in  1770  under  an  act  of  the  Pennsylvania 
assembly  which  required  preference  to  be  given  to  such 
streets  as  were  most  used  by  country  people  when 
bringing  their  produce  to  market.  Salutary  legislation 
of  about  this  same  date  sent  the  human  scavenger  upon 
his  rounds  and  checked  a  former  custom  of  private 
pollutions  on  the  highway ;  at  the  same  time  regulating 
business  signs  and  cellar  steps,  that  they  should  not  en 
croach  upon  the  sidewalk. 

Boston  led  all  the  colonial  towns  of  this  era 
in  public  cleanliness;  and  its  paving  had  since  1715 
received  much  attention  from  the  selectmen.  Here 
economical  usage  was  at  first  to  pave  only  a  strip  in 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


56  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  middle  of  the  street,  and  in  fact  there  was  no  side 
walk  in  the  town  until  after  the  Revolution.  Pebbles 
or  cobblestones — smooth,  round  stones  from  the 
beach — long  composed  the  only  pavement,  and  except 
when  carts  and  carriages  compelled  them  aside  the 
good  people  walked  in  the  middle  of  the  street.  The 
thoroughfares  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  though 
narrow,  were  less  crooked  than  those  of  Boston,  which 
originated  largely  in  trodden  paths  and  cattle  trails; 
while  those  of  New  York,  less  precise  by  ruler  and 
compass  than  in  the  Quaker  City  (planned  by  Penn 
himself),  gave  a  spontaneous  and  pleasing  effect  of 
breadth  and  variety.  By  1750,  New  York's  streets 
were  well  laid  out  and  paved  in  the  more  needful  parts ; 
and  shade  trees  along  the  front  yielded  a  grateful  screen 
from  the  summer's  hot  sunshine.  With  only  about  a 
quarter  mile  of  cartage  anywhere,  that  city  was  paved 
with  round  pebbles,  and  showed  a  Dutch  neatness.  But 
Philadelphia  seems  to  have  improved  quite  slowly ;  and 
with  its  rectangular  streets,  dusty  and  muddy  by  turns, 
as  weather  varied,  people  gave  it  the  punning  sobriquet 
of  "Filthy-dirty."  A  man  on  horseback,  as  the  tale 
went,  having  got  mired  in  one  of  the  streets,  was 
thrown  from  his  horse  and  broke  his  leg;  whereupon 
arose  a  public  agitation,  and  pavements  were  com 
pelled. 

Increasing  dangers  by  night,  with  an  increasing  pop 
ulation,  had  brought  about  street  lighting  and  a  night 
watch  in  our  leading  centres.  Good  citizens  themselves 
maintained  such  luxuries  at  first,  while  the  frugal 
authorities  held  back  from  levying  a  tax;  or  perhaps 
the  unpaid  duties  of  watchman  and  constable  were  im 
posed  upon  fellow-citizens  chosen  to  the  place,  who 
were  fined  if  they  failed  to  serve.  Rural  towns  to  this 


HOUSES  AND  HOMES  57 

day  are  reluctant  to  assume  such  public  burdens.  It 
was  general  complaint  in  1749  that  Philadelphia  had 
barely  six  night  watchmen  to  a  population  of  15,000, 
and  that  even  these  went  their  route  in  company.  No 
watchman's  rattles  were  yet  known,  but  watchmen 
would  cry  the  time  of  night  and  the  state  of  the  weather 
as  they  went  their  rounds — a  practice  derived  from 
old  England,  it  would  seem,  like  the  sentinel's  cry  of 
"all's  well."  At  night  from  the  earliest  times  the  cur 
few  or  nine  o'clock  bell  rang  out  in  New  England 
towns ;  and  Boston  selectmen  issued  strict  orders  to  the 
inhabitants  against  walking  the  streets  after  ten  o'clock 
or  showing  lights  later  in  their  houses.  If  there  ap 
peared  to  be  dancing  or  singing  later  than  that  hour, 
the  watchman  would  rap  on  the  door  and  bid  the 
offenders  cease  or  have  their  names  reported.  Phila 
delphia's  regulations  were  also  strict,  and  the  mayor 
issued  his  formal  instructions  to  the  watchmen  some 
what  after  Dogberry's  famous  formula.  Street  bon 
fires  or  beacons  became  the  usual  night  signal  in 
colonial  towns  among  patriots  opposed  to  the  Crown; 
while  they  whose  business  or  pleasure  took  them  from 
home  after  dark  must  long  have  carried  their  own 
lanterns.1 

*New  York  City  had  in  its  enterprise  erected  lamps  and  lamp 
posts  at  the  public  cost  before  the  Revolution;  so  that,  as  we 
read,  the  plan  earlier  in  vogue  of  hanging  lanterns  from  private 
windows  was  definitely  abandoned.  In  1773  the  Massachusetts 
general  court  passed  an  act  for  regulating  lamp-lighting  in 
Boston  at  the  public  cost,  and  imposing  penalties  for  the  mis 
chievous  offence  of  breaking  street-lamps  and  emptying  the  oil. 
It  seems,  however,  that  the  selectmen  took  no  action  until  nearly 
twenty  years  later  for  public  lighting.  Philadelphia  levied  its 
lamp  and  watch  tax  in  1772  (if  not  earlier),  discounting  the 
rates  to  such  householders  as  kept  their  private  pumps  in  good 
repair. 


58  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

No  general  water-works  on  an  ample  scale  were 
found  in  America  until  after  the  Revolution.  Pump 
or  well  water  was  good  enough  for  the  colonists;  and 
the  old  well-sweep  with  its  oaken  bucket  was  a  familiar 
adjunct  of  the  primitive  home,  to  which  poetry  has 
done  justice.  But  horses  fell  sometimes  into  the  con 
cealed  or  covered  wells  on  private  premises;  while 
human  beings  were  killed  or  badly  maimed  in  like 
manner  where  owners  had  failed  to  keep  up  proper 
safeguards.  Every  New  England  town  had  its  town 
pump,  upon  which  public  notices  and  proclamations 
were  affixed.  Philadelphia  kept  many  pumps  in  its 
public  streets.  Rain  cisterns  were  also  erected.  Wells 
had  succeeded  the  surface  springs  as  local  populations 
grew,  and  since  they  had  often  to  be  sunk  to  great  depth, 
and  were  impregnated  besides  with  impure  matter,  the 
demand  grew  for  a  pure  and  abundant  supply  of  water 
for  whole  communities. 

Fuel  for  our  colonial  homes  was  usually  of  wood,  cut 
in  some  neighboring  forest  and  brought  by  the  winter 
sled  to  market.  In  fact,  winter's  chief  occupation  in  the 
country  consisted  in  providing  the  new  year's  supply, 
to  take  its  proper  turn  at  seasoning  in  the  woodpile. 
Measurers  and  sealers  of  wood  were  among  the  local 
officers  of  our  provinces ;  and  provincial  laws  regulated 
the  length  or  quality  of  all  wood  and  charcoal  exposed 
for  sale.  Virginia  soft  coal  was  used  to  some  extent; 
and  in  1774  we  see  pit-coal  offered  for  sale  by  private 
owners  on  the  James  River,  for  household  or  black 
smith  use,  ready  for  delivery  on  their  premises  at 
12  pence  a  bushel.  Anthracite  was  unknown.  New 
castle  coal  was  imported  and  sold  in  our  chief  centres 
of  population.  Places  of  public  meeting  were  hardly 
warmed  in  winter,  save  by  the  fervid  sermons  or  dis- 


HOUSES  AND   HOMES  59 

cussions.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
appeared  the  cannon  stove — so  called  from  its  shape. 
Franklin's  new  "fireplace"  stove,  invented  in  1742, 
while  economizing  heat,  preserved  the  cheerfulness  of 
an  open  fire. 

In  colonial  times,  keeping  one's  coach  was  at  the 
North  no  essential  of  respectability;  and  a  one-horse 
chaise  or  calash,  springless,  worth  perhaps  fifty  dol 
lars,  and  harnessed  to  a  steady  family  beast,  was  style 
enough  for  any  one.  Virginians,  to  be  sure,  and  their 
neighbors  took  pride  in  thoroughbred  and  well- 
groomed  steeds;  such  gentry  enjoyed  horseback 
riding,  fine  coaches  with  livery  and  the  jockey  races; 
but  the  sleek  Pennsylvanian  ambled  along  with  an  easy 
pacer  and  a  two-wheeled  carriage,  disdaining  such 
follies.  The  householder  had  his  own  stable;  others, 
in  or  near  town,  placed  their  beasts  with  the  tavern 
keeper.  Farmers,  of  course,  kept  their  cattle.  Horses 
that  did  hard  labor  on  the  farm  or  in  the  owner's 
routine  business  were  put  into  their  best  harness  and 
shafts  for  an  occasional  jaunt,  or  on  the  Lord's  day 
to  take  the  family  to  meeting.  Ladies  made  no  pre 
tence  in  this  age  to  athletics;  and  yet,  besides  the 
routine  work  of  farm  or  household,  that  must  have 
called  out  strong  muscular  exertion,  they  took  long 
walks  for  shopping  and  social  visiting ;  and  if  they  went 
out  for  pleasure  and  frolic  at  night,  they  made  nothing 
of  strolling  for  miles  with  their  swains,  even  though 
clad  in  fine  attire.  To  ride  about  in  town  was  thought 
an  affectation,  nor  were  livery  stables  for  hire  as  yet 
an  institution.  Hacks  were  hardly  heard  of ;  and  when 
first  set  up,  in  fact,  their  patronage  did  not  pay  ex 
penses. 


VI 

THE   CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE 

DISTRESSING  accidents,  such  as  we  find 
chronicled  in  the  newspapers  of  our  colonial 
era,  bring  home  vividly  to  posterity  the 
dangerous  personal  exposures  of  that  period.  How 
many  serious  casualties  came  from  trying  to  do  every 
thing  for  one's  own  self  in  this  rude  state  of  experi 
ence,  without  expert  knowledge  or  the  fair  subdivision 
of  industries !  Severe  sickness  or  injury  was  followed 
more  likely  by  death  than  nowadays,  because  less  skil 
fully  treated  or  guarded  against.  Children,  rambling 
out  of  doors,  and  grown  persons  besides,  would  pick 
and  eat  strange  berries,  roots  and  vegetables  that 
turned  out  poisonous ;  and  in  vain  did  newspapers  warn 
against  toadstools  resembling  mushrooms,  against 
hemlock,  ivy  and  the  like,  strange  growths  of  luxuriant 
nature. 

Clumsiness  at  work  by  the  injured  or  injurer  did 
much  mortal  mischief.  A  man  dropped  from  his  ladder 
or  scaffolding  while  repairing  a  house,  or  fell  into  the 
well  he  was  digging,  or  got  knocked  under  the  frame 
of  the  building  he  was  helping  to  raise,  or  was  scalded 
to  death  by  an  overturned  kettle  of  boiling  water,  pot 
ash  or  maple  sap.  One  poor  fellow  was  crushed  under 
the  wheel  of  a  cart  that  he  or  some  one  else  was  driv 
ing;  another  was  killed  by  the  fall  of  a  tree  while 
awkwardly  chopping  it  down.  Not  seldom,  we  may 


THE   CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE         61 

surmise,  the  victim  was  under  the  influence  of  liquor ; 
for  tippling  at  this  date  was  a  vice  quite  prevalent 
among  Americans.  But  many  an  accident  was  doubt 
less  due  to  bodily  wrenching  or  straining,  while  over 
taxing  one's  strength  in  trying  to  lift,  unload  or  do 
a  hundred  other  things  for  one's  self,  which  in  these 
days  would  devolve  rather  upon  men  specially  skilled 
or  seasoned  to  such  labor.  We  read  of  a  father  and 
three  sons  who  were  killed,  one  after  another,  while 
descending,  without  first  making  a  test,  into  a  pit  of 
noxious  vapor.  One  man  was  asphyxiated  by  setting 
a  pot  of  burning  charcoal  in  his  bedchamber  at  night 
and  then  shutting  the  windows  to  keep  out  the  cold; 
another  was  maimed  fatally  while  prying  up  a  rock; 
a  third  was  killed  by  his  uplifted  axe  flying  from  the 
handle;  a  fourth  tumbled  from  the  roof  and  broke  his 
neck  while  trying  to  put  out  a  fire  which  had  caught 
from  his  kitchen  chimney.  Pioneer  life  brings  its 
peculiar  casualties,  and  many  accidents  of  this  age  were 
due,  undoubtedly,  to  carrying  on  one's  occupation  at 
home  in  the  presence  of  his  family.  So,  once  more, 
with  a  large  wood  fire  left  on  the  ample  hearth,  a  help 
less  old  grandmother  or  young  child  would  be  burned 
to  death  in  its  embers  while  left  unwatched. 

People  were  careless,  moreover,  in  the  use  of  powder 
and  firearms  wrhen  our  Revolutionary  era  began,  as 
the  newspapers  show  us.  Thus  in  celebrating  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  injuries  were  reported  in  various 
towns  where  the  charge  had  been  carelessly  rammed 
into  the  cannon.  At  Hartford  the  legislature  voted 
joyfully  to  the  townsfolk  two  barrels  of  powder  for 
volleys  in  honor  of  the  repeal.  This  powder  was  kept 
in  the  schoolhouse,  and  the  militiamen,  when  filling 
their  horns  with  it,  left  some  spilled  on  the  floor.  The 


62  AMERICANS  OF  1776 


school  children  playing  sportively  with  the  black  grains, 
one  boy  set  them  on  fire,  whereupon,  the  train  leading 
to  a  powder  barrel,  the  latter  exploded  with  tremen 
dous  concussion.  The  schoolhouse  was  blown  up,  and 
wholesale  slaughter  of  the  innocents  rounded  the 
catastrophe.  Careless  lads  in  Boston,  carelessly  looked 
after,  met  a  similar  fate  a  few  years  later  while  amus 
ing  themselves  with  another  stray  barrel  of  this  ex 
plosive,  left  loosely  about.  There  were  gunpowder 
accidents,  besides,  where  grown  people  used  powder 
from  a  horn  to  start  a  household  fire  on  the  hearth. 
Writers  in  the  press  of  1770  complained  that  boys  got 
hold  of  gunpowder  and  firearms,  and  then  fired  loaded 
pistols  out  of  mischief  at  a  passing  carriage,  perilling 
the  lives  of  wayfarers  and  frightening  their  horses. 
A  stringent  police  inspection  must  here  have  been 
wanting. 


The  individual  nature  of  these  accidents,  in  the  main, 
forces  a  comparison  with  our  own  more  polished  and 
populous  age.  Seldom  did  a  fatality  of  this  era  in 
volve  a  general  holocaust  of  lives,  as  happens  so  often 
in  these  later  days  of  wholesale  risk  by  tramp  or  travel. 
The  canoe  or  little  skiff  was  overset  in  summer,  the 
sleigh  broke  through  the  thin  ice  in  winter,  yet  only 
two  or  three  were  drowned.  From  houses  and  work 
shops  as  then  built  or  occupied  there  was  a  tolerably 
easy  escape.  Death  came,  then,  or  some  shocking  in 
jury,  chiefly  as  an  individual  infliction,  and  strongly 
indeed  must  the  heart  of  the  community  have  responded 
to  sorrow  and  suffering.  For  in  these  primitive  days 
all  were  compassionate  toward  social  equals,  at  least, 
who  were  bereaved ;  and  to  each  large  household  came 


THE   CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE         63 

in  turn  the  chastening  experience  of  human  sorrow. 
Even  in  war,  they  who  fought  for  liberty  were  fairly 
identified,  far  beyond  the  present  conception  of  our 
later  age;  high  or  low,  in  each  and  every  community, 
the  brave  were  mourned  and  memorized  in  their  deeds. 

In  men's  mouths  and  through  press  or  preacher  the 
moral  of  the  sudden  death  found  expression.  "Ye 
gay  and  careless  on  his  fate  attend,"  was  a  frequent 
comment  in  the  newspapers;  nor  had  the  "marvellous 
dispensations  of  Providence"  passed  out  of  New  Eng 
land  study  since  the  days  of  old  Winthrop's  Journal. 
And  truly  God's  hand  was  recognized  in  many  a 
strange  phenomenon  of  the  times — in  earthquakes, 
lightning,  storms,  and  other  commotions  of  nature, 
which  were  faithfully  reported,  and  sometimes  a  little 
credulously.  There  were  news  of  hurricanes  from 
"His  Majesty's  Caribbean  Islands;"  and  precocious 
Alexander  Hamilton  owed  his  first  prodigious  lift  in 
life  by  vividly  describing,  while  a  youth,  one  of  those 
calamities  for  a  local  paper.  At  Amesbury  and  Salis 
bury,  in  Massachusetts,  a  terrible  tornado  in  1773 
wrecked  all  houses  far  and  near,  while  sparing  human 
life.  In  1777  earthquakes  rumbled  at  historic  Con 
cord  and  the  neighboring  towns,  as  credible  witnesses 
solemnly  deponed.  Balls  of  fire,  in  these  eventful 
years — comets,  too,  and  meteors,  were  studied  by  col 
lege  men  in  various  provinces.  Hailstones  in  Vir 
ginia,  as  big  as  a  pint  bowl,  whirlwinds  and  the  like, 
were  reported  from  the  South,  till  our  printer  him 
self  betrayed  scepticism  over  his  information. 

Thunder  and  lightning  in  particular  seem  to  have 
been  unsparingly  destructive  in  our  summer  storms, 
and  the  variety  of  accidents  therefrom  was  wonderful. 
Persons  struck  by  the  thunderbolt  were  senseless  for 


64  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

hours,  if  left  alive ;  horses,  sheep  and  oxen  perished  in 
large  numbers ;  many  a  tree  was  riven  sharply  asunder. 
Fifteen  sheep  under  a  tree  lost  their  lives  together; 
a  vessel  building  on  the  stocks  was  wholly  ruined.  In 
or  near  Philadelphia,  in  1772,  a  house  was  struck  by 
lightning  one  day  while  the  whole  family  were  at 
table;  some  were  killed  or  stunned,  others  miracu 
lously  escaped,  while  pewter  plates,  from  which  they 
were  eating  dinner,  had  the  whole  rim  melted.  Five 
years  later,  at  Hartford,  on  a  June  Sunday,  a  violent 
downpour  of  rain  began  just  as  Divine  service  was 
over,  and,  with  a  sharp  detonation  like  a  cannon-shot, 
lightning  struck  the  steeple  of  the  meeting-house,  shat 
tering  the  top  and  carrying  away  weathercock,  spindle 
and  large  timbers.  Then  the  electricity  glided,  snake- 
like,  under  the  roof  and  prostrated  some  of  the  assem 
bly,  killing  a  woman.  In  terror,  the  congregation 
sought  to  escape,  but  the  shower  hindered  them;  and 
returning  to  their  seats  and  singing  psalms  together 
they  grew  calm,  and  the  storm  passed  on  without  fur 
ther  injury. 

Accidents  like  these  were  reported  all  over  America 
from  year  to  year  by  the  local  press.  A  Baltimore 
sheriff  perished  in  1767  by  lightning.  James  Otis,  the 
eloquent  seer  of  revolution,  was  killed,  as  posterity 
knows,  by  a  thunderbolt.  Many  a  strange  fantastic 
freak  was  played  by  the  electric  fluid  in  one  rural  com 
munity  or  another.  Citizens  of  a  scientific  turn  stud 
ied,  therefore,  how  to  lessen  the  danger  by  appliances 
which  might  treat  lightning  as  a  natural  agent,  rather 
than  the  visible  symbol  of  God's  wrath.  Hence,  by 
1770,  Franklin's  lightning  rods  came  somewhat  into 
use.  Prejudice,  however,  against  lightning  rods  was 
very  great,  and  many  insisted  that  it  was  better  to 


THE   CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE         65 

trust  all  to  the  Divine  Will  than  forefend  danger  with 
such  impious  contrivances.  It  was  to  meet  a  common 
New  England  superstition  that  Professor  John  Win- 
throp,  of  Cambridge,  a  man  of  much  wisdom,  who  was 
the  first  recipient  of  an  LL.D.  from  Harvard,  com 
mended  the  new  invention,  in  1770,  in  an  open  letter 
to  the  press,  arguing  that  the  religious  scruples  which 
opposed  its  introduction  were  founded  in  false  phi 
losophy  and  a  misapprenhension  of  those  natural  laws 
by  which  God  guides  the  universe. 

The  old  Puritan  idea,  that  God  shapes  directly  all  the 
details  of  human  life  for  purposes  foreordained  toward 
each  individual  soul,  truly  conflicted  with  the  more 
rational  theory  of  man's  responsible  existence  on  this 
earth  and  his  free  choice  among  the  operations  of 
nature's  own  immutable  laws.  It  failed  to  apprehend 
a  Divine  Will  which  respects  high  human  endeavor. 
Hence  science  must  have  swung  in  that  century  to  an 
opposite  side,  leaving  religion  and  irreligion  in  strong 
antagonism.  When  the  pendulum  ceases  to  react  vio 
lently  to  and  fro,  the  real  truth  as  to  man's  final  destiny 
may  reveal  itself  at  equilibrium. 


Great  suffering  must  have  been  caused  in  this  era 
by  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold.  The  temperature  of 
America  differed,  perhaps,  not  greatly  from  what  pos 
terity  has  found  it,  and  weather  exceptionally  severe 
may  still  set  in.  But  the  conveniences  for  resisting 
storm  and  stress  were  far  less  then  than  now;  though 
greater,  doubtless,  than  in  the  previous  century,  when 
the  winter  sufferings  of  our  first  New  England  settlers 
must  have  been  terrible  indeed.  Roads  scarcely  trav 
elled,  with  dwellers  far  apart ;  dense  woods  and  frozen 


66  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

sheets  of  water;  wooden  houses  built  meanly  for  the 
most  part,  and  with  chinks  and  crannies  through  which 
the  winter  winds  might  whistle  hoarsely;  no  furnaces, 
no  large  portable  stoves  or  steam  radiators  to  diffuse 
and  equalize  warmth;  wood  fires  usually  in  place  of 
coal,  throwing  out  a  fitful  and  variable  heat ;  imperfect 
means  at  hand  for  alleviating  sickness  and  suffering; 
no  flight  for  the  invalid  to  a  warmer  climate,  no  lux 
uries, — such  were  the  usual  conditions  of  colonial  life 
for  meeting  each  winter's  hardships.  Navigation  in 
our  Northern  ports  was  hindered  much  by  the  win 
ter's  ice;  small  sailing  vessels  in  boisterous  weather 
were  tossed  furiously  about  or  driven  ashore  in 
disaster;  great  spring  floods  and  high  tides,  with 
wind,  rain  or  snow  alternate,  submerged  the  piers  and 
streets  adjacent  in  our  seaport  towns,  deluged  the  cel 
lars,  broke  up  wharves,  carried  off  piles  of  lumber 
awaiting  export  at  the  water's  edge,  and  damaged  such 
little  craft  as  might  be  moored  at  anchor  in  the  vicinity. 
Snowstorms  which  lasted  three  days  in  midwinter 
would  pile  the  drifting  snow  six  or  seven  feet  high 
in  places,  thus  blocking  all  travel,  preventing  the  hardy 
post-riders  from  making  their  customary  trips,  and  ex 
cluding  news  for  a  whole  week  from  the  outer  world. 
Then  two  months  later  would  come  great  freshets 
with  the  first  spring  thaw,  carrying  away  bridges,  im 
peding  the  little  ferries,  and  once  more  detaining  trav 
ellers  and  the  mails.  We  read  of  a  severe  snowstorm, 
March,  1761,  in  Philadelphia,  which  prevented  a 
quorum  of  the  Pennsylvania  assembly  from  conven 
ing;  and  a  merchants'  petition,  that  same  year,  prayed 
the  authorities  to  have  piers  erected  in  the  Delaware, 
so  as  to  fend  vessels  from  the  floating  ice.  Another 
intensely  cold  winter,  bringing  severe  snowstorms,  was 


THE   CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE         67 

that  of  1765-66.  Boston  boys  skated  on  the  frozen 
Charles,  and  sleighs  were  driven  over  that  river  from 
Cambridge;  some  fifteen  vessels  could  be  counted, 
locked  fast  in  Boston  harbor  by  the  ice,  over  whose 
polished  surface  people  walked  for  miles  to  visit  the 
castle  and  various  islands.  The  gales  and  occasional 
snowfalls  of  that  winter  were  terrible  to  endure;  men 
froze  to  death  while  driving,  exposed  to  the  keen 
air;  snowshoes  were  worn  out  of  doors;  many  chim 
neys  blew  down.  Hairbreadth  escapes  were  an 
nounced,  moreover,  in  course  of  the  voyage  between 
Providence  and  New  York,  or  where  men  who  went 
gunning  after  water-fowl  got  their  boats  entangled  in 
the  ice  about  Long  Island.  It  was  shown  by  careful 
experiment  in  a  closed  house  in  New  York  City,  that, 
in  rooms  where  there  was  no  fire,  a  glass  of  wine 
froze  to  the  bottom  in  fourteen  minutes,  and  water  in 
three  seconds. 


Disastrous  fires  enhanced  the  calamity  of  exposure 
to  severe  winter  weather  like  this.  Sparks  and  flame 
belching  from  the  deep-throated  chimneys  upon 
a  wooden  roof  caused  many  a  conflagration.  Befouled 
chimneys  were  a  frequent  cause  of  fire;  so  was  care 
lessness  with  a  basket  of  chips ;  or  the  foolish  custom  of 
keeping  hot  ashes  in  wooden  barrels  and  boxes.  Other 
household  fires  were  due  to  the  pursuit  of  industries 
upon  the  family  premises,  which  nowadays  would  be 
conducted  elsewhere — as  where  one  carried  on  at  home 
a  bakeshop  or  brewery,  tried  out  tallow,  or  repaired 
furniture.  Burning  brush  was  another  reported  cause 
of  such  a  calamity ;  or  going  down  cellar  with  a  lighted 
candle  to  draw  rum  or  cider  for  supper. 


68  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

When  weather  was  icy  cold,  and  the  wind  blowing 
a  gale,  a  spreading  fire  by  night  was  fearful  to  delicate 
children  and  the  elderly  sick  and  feeble,  who  had  to 
be  brought  out  of  bed  and  removed  in  the  cold  to  such 
shelter  as  might  offer.  Incendiary  fires  seem  seldom  to 
have  occurred,  however.  Neighbors  turned  out 
strongly  to  help  on  all  occasions  of  calamity,  and  at 
church  even,  when  the  shouts  of  "fire!"  from  outside 
were  heard,  with  the  noise  of  engines  in  the  street,  the 
males  of  a  congregation  would  hasten  out  of  doors, 
losing  the  sequence  of  the  sermon.  A  simple  candor 
was  shown  by  the  press  in  relating  the  indiscretion,  if 
any,  which  had  caused  the  disaster;  as  in  an  Andover 
fire  of  1770,  which  burned  to  the  ground  an  old  house 
next  the  meeting-house,  its  three  lonely  and  aged  in 
mates  perishing  in  the  flames;  though  providentially, 
as  the  reporter  put  it,  the  church  escaped  unharmed, 
owing  to  the  direction  of  the  wind.  Two  old  maiden 
sisters,  it  seems,  were  in  the  habit  of  smoking  their 
pipes  after  they  got  into  bed,  whence,  probably,  the 
disaster.  "Therefore,"  adds  the  chronicler,  "it  may 
not  be  amiss  to  caution  people  against  such  a  prac 
tice." 

Townspeople  in  those  days  kept  their  own  fire- 
buckets,  made  of  heavy  leather  and  marked  with  the 
owner's  initials  or  family  crest;  and  the  local  news 
paper,  after  some  important  fire,  would  advertise  for 
missing  buckets.  When  an  alarm  was  given,  by  cries 
or  bell-ringing,  each  householder  rushed  with  his 
bucket  toward  the  scene  of  danger,  and  a  double  line 
was  formed  to  the  nearest  river,  pond,  or  tide-water 
dock,  as  the  case  might  be,  whence  buckets  brimming 
with  water  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  up  one  line,  and 
then  dry  again  down  the  other,  to  be  refilled  or  passed 


THE    CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE         69 

as  before.  Fire  engines  of  a  simple  sort  had  come  into 
use  in  our  chief  centres;  most  were  imported  before 
1 765 ;  but  after  that  date,  the  home-made  engines  of 
Boston  or  Philadelphia  pattern  were  thought  even  bet 
ter  than  those  from  London.  Our  fire  engines  as  yet 
worked  simply  with  a  pump  and  nozzle ;  hose  carriages 
came  much  later,  while  steam  fire  engines  belong  to 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1738  Frank 
lin  formed  at  Philadelphia  the  first  of  volunteer  fire 
companies  in  America,  and  each  member  at  his  own 
cost  kept  a  certain  number  of  leather  buckets,  with 
strong  bags  and  baskets  besides  for  packing  and  res 
cuing  goods  from  the  flames.  This  example  spread  to 
other  towns  and  provinces;  and  social  clubs  are  still 
to  be  found  for  good  fellowship  which  originated  as  a 
local  fire  company  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

Fire  insurance  had  made  some  progress  in  these  col 
onies  before  the  Revolution,  and  a  few  companies,  on 
the  mutual  plan,  took  risks  in  Boston  and  Philadel 
phia.  Yet  there  was  prejudice  against  such  schemes; 
and  we  see  the  correspondent  of  a  New  York  paper, 
as  late  as  1770,  expressing  his  surprise  that  no  such 
enterprise  had  yet  been  started  in  that  city.  "Contri- 
butionship,"  as  it  was  called,  against  losses  from  fire, 
was  an  idea  for  another  and  later  generation  to  appre 
ciate  at  its  true  worth.  Men  took  their  own  risks 
largely  of  losses  by  fire,  as  in  being  struck  by  lightning. 
All  such  ordinances  were  of  God,  as  they  expressed  it ; 
and  the  impoverished  citizen  whose  building  and  con 
tents  yielded  to  the  furious  flames,  had  usually  to  begin 
life  over  again,,  stripped  of  his  hoarded  possessions. 
That  situation  of  life,  so  unfamiliar  to  our  later  age, 
called  specially  for  sympathy  and  alleviation  from 
neighbors.  Marine  risks  and  marine  insurance  became 


70  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

a  business  in  the  modern  world  sooner  than  fire  in 
surance,  just  as  fire  risks  and  fire  insurance  preceded 
insurance  on  lives.1 


Things  were  lost  or  stolen  in  those  days,  as  in  ours, 
and  the  loss  was  advertised  in  the  paper.  That  trem 
ulous  signer  of  the  Declaration,  Stephen  Hopkins,  of 
Rhode  Island,  while  returning  with  fellow-delegates 
from  Congress,  in  1776,  lost  a  large  bundle  of  men's 
and  women's  clothes,  made  up  in  a  coarse  linen  wrap 
per.  He  had  sent  them  specially  by  a  wagon  from 
Philadelphia  to  Providence;  "the  wagon  arrived  at 
Providence,"  he  naively  announces,  "but  the  cloathes 
did  not."  Another  good  citizen  of  New  England  lost, 
in  1 769,  a  bag,  whose  contents  he  itemized  as  one  half- 
worn  beaver  hat,  a  gray  cloth  jacket,  a  pair  of  country- 
made  speckled  stockings,  one  ruffled  shirt,  one  plain 
ditto,  and  a  package  of  valuable  papers.  He  names  in 
his  card  a  friend,  whom  he  authorizes  to  receive  the 
bag  if  found,  and  supposes  he  lost  it  in  some  dram 
shop  or  tavern  while  in  company  with  soldiers.  The 
simple  candor  of  such  newspaper  statements  is  some 
times  amusing ;  yet  cunning  was  shown  by  the  loser,  as 
nowadays,  when  appealing  to  the  unknown  dispos- 
sessor.  Reward  we  see  offered  thus  early  for  restitu 
tion,  "and  no  questions  asked."  In  a  Boston  paper, 
one  announced  his  loss  of  a  new  beaver  hat,  which  was 
taken  out  of  a  room  in  Massachusetts  Hall,  at  Cam- 
brake's  "Landmarks"  says  that  the  first  fire  insurance  com 
pany  in  Boston  dated  from  1724;  but  this  seems  to  have  been 
a  Boston  agency  of  the  London  "Sun"  Insurance  Co.  Encycl. 
Brit,  gives  the  Philadelphia  company  of  1752  as  the  earliest 
started  in  America,  Benjamin  Franklin  being  one  of  its  earliest 
directors. 


THE   CASUALTIES   OF   LIFE         71 

bridge,  on  Commencement  Day,  an  old  one  being  left 
in  its  stead;  and  the  loser  politely  surmises  that  the 
exchange  was  made  by  mistake,  though  adding  that 
his  own  name  was  pasted  inside  of  the  missing  castor. 
Another  loser,  less  suave,  offered  a  reward  as  for  arti 
cles  doubtless  stolen  from  his  house,  and  tried  another 
tack, — he  warns  the  thieves,  whoever  they  may  be,  that 
if  they  escape  condign  punishment  in  this  world,  they 
will  meet  it  in  the  next,  where  they  will  repent  all  too 
late  that  they  had  foolishly  lost  their  souls  in  trying 
to  gain  the  goods  of  this  world  wrongfully. 


In  English  court  process  of  the  earliest  times  and 
in  all  formal  documents  of  our  common  law,  the  recital 
of  pursuit  in  station  after  each  patronymic  has  been  so 
customary  as  fairly  to  suggest  the  origin  of  various 
surnames.  Thus,  probate  notices  styled  the  deceased 
as  knight  or  gentleman,  merchant,  shipwright,  clerk, 
victualler,  smith,  brazier,  chocolate  grinder,  and  so  on. 
Such  was  the  custom  strongly  prevalent  here  and 
abroad  in  colonial  times.  In  the  colonial  press,  more 
over,  one  saw  the  formal  notice  of  executor  or  admin 
istrator  followed  quite  often  by  a  line  or  two  of  adver 
tising  on  his  own  personal  account;  for  he  used  the 
opportunity  to  do  a  stroke  of  business  both  for  the  dead 
one's  assets  and  his  own.  A  husband,  for  instance, 
administering  on  his  deceased  wife's  estate,  announces 
that  he  has  for  sale  choice  Narragansett  cheese  and 
Dorchester  ale,  with  other  English  commodities,  cheap 
for  cash.  A  distiller's  widow  adds  to  her  probate 
notice  as  executrix,  that  she  still  carries  on  the  business 
and  customers  may  send  for  their  rum  as  before.  The 
relict  of  a  baker  or  a  sugar  boiler  makes  corresponding 


72  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

announcement;  and  quite  commonly  the  surviving 
spouse,  or  widow  and  children  together,  advertise  a 
successor  to  the  decedent's  business,  hoping  for  the 
continued  patronage  of  the  public.  So,  again,  a  family 
friend,  who  settled  his  neighbor's  estate,  might  be  seen 
putting  in  a  good  word  for  himself  in  connection  with 
the  probate  advertisement;  as  where  an  executor  pub 
lished  that  he  kept  good  stabling  for  horses,  and  that 
travellers  might  depend  at  any  time  upon  his  faithful 
care.  Articles  to  be  sold  for  an  estate — such  as  a  horse 
and  shay,  for  instance — were  added,  too,  to  these 
printed  orders  of  the  court ;  or  a  request  was  specially 
appended  that  persons  who  had  articles  belonging  to 
the  estate  of  the  departed  would  return  them  forth 
with.  There  seems  to  have  been  much  neighborly  bor 
rowing  in  those  days,  as  well  as  a  reckoning  of  small 
things;  for  among  specific  articles  thus  publicly  called 
for  as  missing  from  an  estate,  we  find  itemized  not 
books  alone,  but  a  blue  drab  coat,  or  a  pair  of  boots. 
One  thinks  in  such  connection  of  that  conscientious 
nicety  of  the  frugal  and  thrifty  Scotch,  proclaimed 
in  their  own  immortal  songs;  as  where  the  loyal 
Jacobin  tenders  his  extra  bawbee  to  be  ferried  over 
to  bonnie  Prince  Charlie;  or  boon  companions  who 
take  together  their  last  "good  willie-waught"  for 
"Auld  Lang  Syne,"  prearrange  that  each  shall  be  at 
his  own  cost  for  the  extra  pint. 


VII 

THE    THREE   PUBLIC   VOCATIONS 

IN  no  respect  does  the  Revolutionary  Age  contrast 
more  strongly  with  our  own  than  in  the  prac 
tical  condition  of  the  three  public  vocations,  so 
termed,  of  our  common  law — those  of  postmaster,  inn 
keeper  and  common  carrier.     And  the  development  of 
those  several  vocations  has   immensely  affected  our 
national  character. 


As  for  the  post-office,  our  Continental  establishment 
at  the  date  of  the  Revolution  was  directed  by  govern 
ment,  as  in  the  mother  country.  The  public  post  orig 
inated  centuries  ago,  in  the  sovereign  transmission  of 
public  despatches  alone.  Thus  was  it  with  Persia,  with 
the  Roman  Empire,  with  Europe  under  Charlemagne. 
In  Great  Britain,  as  in  these  colonies  when  first  set- 
led,  common  people  sent  usually  their  letters  by  car 
riers  or  by  private  conveyance ;  but  soon  after  the  expul 
sion  of  the  Stuarts  we  see  the  Virginia  Burgesses  agi 
tating  a  popular  postal  system,  after  the  plan  already 
adopted  in  the  mother  country,  and  organized  by 
Parliament  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  That  sys 
tem  was  fairly  established  in  these  colonies  by  1740, 
so  that  post-riders  exchanged  the  mails  between  Vir 
ginia  and  Pennsylvania  and  eastward  also.  Hence 
forth,  and  through  our  Revolutionary  War,  Philadel- 


74  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

phia,  America's  chief  city,  became  the  great  postal  and 
distributing  center  of  our  thirteen  colonies  or  states. 
Franklin,  when  Postmaster-General  for  the  Crown  by 
1753,  took  hold  of  the  details  deputed  to  him  with 
characteristic  energy  and  thrift,  and  after  some  private 
outlay  for  improvements,  he  made  it  profitable  for 
government  and  its  agents  as  never  before.  He  set 
up  milestones.  He  arranged  that  the  northern  mail 
from  Philadelphia,  which  had  gone  to  Boston  but  once 
a  fortnight,  should  go  once  a  week  all  the  year  round ; 
so  that  Boston  and  Philadelphia  letters  might  be  inter 
changed  in  three  weeks,  instead  of  six,  as  previously. 
So,  too,  he  changed  the  mail  between  Philadelphia  and 
New  York,  from  once  a  fortnight  to  twice  a  week,  thus 
traversing  the  distance  between  those  two  important 
cities  in  three  days.  By  the  year  our  independence  was 
proclaimed,  even  Bostonians  might  hear  twice  a  week 
from  Philadelphia  and  New  York  when  travelling  was 
good.  On  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1775,  our  Con 
gress  took  up  the  general  post-office  as  an  independent 
system;  they  established  a  chain  of  posts  from  Fal- 
mouth,  New  England,  to  Savannah,  with  riders  for 
every  twenty-five  miles  and  advice-boats  besides. 
Stagecoaches  took  gradually  the  place  of  the  boy  on 
horseback,  or  of  post  chaises  or  sulkies,  for  such  trans 
portation;  and  post-riders  would  sometimes  set  up  a 
stagecoach  for  the  common  business  of  mails  and  pas 
sengers. 

The  conveyance  of  newspapers  in  this  era  was  often 
the  private  perquisite  of  post-riders  on  their  several 
routes,  since  newspapers  and  magazines  did  not  go 
through  the  public  mails  at  all.  "Post-rider"  some 
times  meant  a  sort  of  private  carrier  for  mail  matter, 
and  many  people  preferred  to  send  their  important  let- 


THE  THREE   PUBLIC   VOCATIONS      75 

ters  by  private  conveyance.  During  the  Revolutionary 
War,  messengers  who  proposed  special  trips  of  peril, 
to  Quebec  or  Ticonderoga,  for  instance,  would  adver 
tise  to  take  private  letters  with  them  at  a  shilling  or 
more  each. 

At  times  the  mail  carrier  journeyed  in  peril  of  his 
life;  but  his  profession  availed  him  well  against  casual 
disturbers  of  the  peace.  If  assailed  by  highway  rob 
bers,  he  would  say,  "I  am  on  His  Majesty's  service," 
and  they  let  him  ride  on.  Stress  of  weather  and  the 
bad  condition  of  our  roads  would  keep  back  the  post, 
particularly  in  the  winter  and  early  spring.  Not  sel 
dom  the  latest  mails  and  newspapers  from  New  York 
arrived  in  consequence  a  fortnight  old  in  Boston  or 
Baltimore,  for  ferries  were  frozen  over  with  the  win 
ter's  ice,  and  bridges  swept  away  by  the  spring  fresh 
ets.  Few  large  rivers  were  in  those  days  bridged 
over  at  all,  and  travellers  alternated  between  boat 
and  wagon.  Deep  and  drifting  snow,  when  it  came, 
cut  off  communication  alike  by  post  or  the  stage 
coach. 

Postal  regulations,  issued  in  1765,  for  these  colonies 
proclaimed  each  postmaster  liable  who  embezzled  the 
postage  money  paid  him  in  advance;  postboys  were 
to  be  punished  who  deserted  a  mail  or  bag  of  letters, 
or  loitered  on  the  way,  or  let  any  unofficial  person  ride 
on  their  horses  or  in  their  wagons.  There  were  no 
stamps  used.  The  letter  postage  at  that  time  between 
London  and  any  port  among  the  British  dominions  in 
America  was  one  shilling  a  single  letter,  or  for  letters 
weighing  an  ounce,  four  shillings ;  and  hence,  for  pri 
vate  correspondence,  the  advantage  of  thin  single 
sheets  of  good  size,  crossed  and  recrossed  in  writing, 
and  folded  and  refolded,  for  sealing  by  wax  or  wafer. 


76  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

The  foreign  mail  arrived  in  our  ports  by  heavy 
instalments  far  apart;  and  news  from  London  two 
months  behind  were  thought  fresh  enough  in  New 
York  port.  Tories  argued,  when  our  Whigs  opposed 
the  Stamp  Act,  that  letter  postage  was  already  a  Par 
liamentary  exaction  in  effect,  which  no  one  complained 
of  here  or  thought  of  opposing;  but  to  this  came  the 
fair  reply  that  postage  was  paid  for  a  special  service  of 
the  government  plainly  to  the  advantage  of  the  indi 
vidual. 


The  inn — in  this  early  era  commonly  styled 
"tavern"  or  "coffee-house,"  or,  still  earlier,  "an  ordi 
nary" — made  very  little  pretence  of  being  fit  for  men 
of  fashion  with  their  families  to  abide  in  regularly. 
Colonists,  when  they  mated,  wanted  their  own  house 
hold  nests  for  themselves  and  their  expected  progeny, 
and  however  humble  the  family  home,  they  secured 
it.  Inns,  in  other  words,  lodged  travellers,  and  the 
strictly  transient  only,  except  for  single  men ;  and  those 
great  organisms  of  luxury  and  fashion,  such  as  we 
know  to-day  for  hotels,  were  then  wholly  wanting  in 
America,  to  attract  rich  boarders  and  lodgers  of  both 
sexes  seeking  social  ease  for  a  season  and  escape  from 
the  worry  of  housekeeping.  But  in  default  of  accom 
modation  elsewhere,  the  spacious  public  rooms  of  an 
inn  came  into  demand  for  an  occasional  concert,  ball 
or  assembly,  in  the  larger  towns;  sleigh-ride  parties 
and  excursionists  stopped  at  its  open  door  for  a  supper 
and  an  impromptu  dance;  while  with  main  office, 
known  to  this  very  day  by  the  suggestive  style  of  "bar 
room,"  and  with  commodious  stables,  our  public  house 
served  as  passenger  station  and  booking  headquarters 


THE  THREE  PUBLIC  VOCATIONS      77 

for  the  various  stages  that  came  and  went  at  fixed 
hours  of  the  day.  And  here,  furthermore,  Americans 
would  meet  for  jollity  or  grave  conference,  with 
plenty  of  good  liquor  at  command  to  stimulate  their 
wits  and  appetites.  Here,  as  in  England,  men  smoked 
and  drank,  taking  their  ease  together  in  the  hours  of 
recreation;  here  they  discussed  politics,  drank  toasts, 
quarrelled  with  one  another,  and  even  came  to  blows, 
since  rules  of  decorum  were  not  rigid.  Addison  and 
the  Spectator  familiarize  us  with  the  atmosphere  of 
fun  and  good  fellowship  which  long  enlivened  the 
London  coffee-house;  America,  too,  had  her  wags  and 
story  tellers,  whose  local  renown  mellowed  in  the 
genial  warmth  of  a  tavern's  hospitality.  In  fine,  even 
before  Americans  did  much  travelling,  inns  were  the 
centre  of  life  and  affairs  for  the  men  folk;  and  judges 
and  jurymen,  church  committees  and  politicians,  idlers 
and  business  men,  all  resorted  thither,  to  discuss  and 
arrange  affairs  together. 

The  inn  or  tavern  had  usually  in  those  days  some 
fanciful  name,  with  pictured  sign  or  emblem  before  the 
door  to  enhance  the  effect  of  publicity.  There  was  the 
"hat  and  helmet;"  the  "ship  on  launch;"  "the  golden 
swan"  or  "golden  eagle,"  with  a  gaudy  gilding;  "the 
green  dragon;"  "the  orange  tree;"  "the  bunch  of 
grapes;"  the  "Turk's"  or  "Saracen's  head;"  the 
"crooked  billet"  or  "fagot;"  "the  pewter  plate;"  the 
Indian  "King"  or  "Queen."  Atrocious  painting  might 
be  seen  crowded  upon  the  sign-board  of  a  tavern  or 
shop  to  attract  the  public  by  its  quaintness.  Thus, 
Philadelphia  had  "the  death  of  the  fox;"  "the  man 
loaded  with  mischief"  (who  carried  his  wife  on  his 
back)  ;  and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  the  act  of  smoking, 
while  his  servant  threw  water  upon  him,  thinking  him 


78  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

on  fire.1  Boston  had,  in  colonial  days,  an  inn  called 
"the  British  Coffee-House,"  which  its  proprietors 
changed  into  "the  American  Coffee-House,"  with  the 
sign  of  a  gilded  eagle,  after  that  town  was  redeemed 
from  British  siege.  But  in  colonial  times  our  inns, 
like  those  of  the  mother  country,  took  often  the  name 
of  some  British  peer,  or  an  officer  renowned  in  the 
army  or  navy;  thus,  there  was  the  "Marquis  of 
Granby,"  the  "General  Wolfe,"  the  "Admiral  Vernon" 
— this  last,  whose  nickname  was  "Old  Grog,"  being 
the  same  officer  after  whom  Washington's  elder 
brother  named  Mount  Vernon. 

Philadelphia  taverns  were  licensed  early,  but  they 
did  not  stand  in  high  favor,  and  sank  readily  into  tip 
pling  and  disorderly  houses.2  Of  inns  in  that  city,  the 
"Indian  King"  was  the  oldest  and  most  reputable,  and 
it  was  here  that  Franklin's  junto  used  to  meet.  The 
"Crooked  Billet"  (of  wood)  was  also  famous;  so,  too, 
by  1776,  the  "City  Tavern."  Philadelphia  judges 
used  once  to  hold  their  courts  at  such  houses,  but  as 
this  increased  hard  drinking,  the  practice  ceased.  In 
New  York  City,  "Bolton's  Tavern,"  with  its  choice 
larder,  was  a  famous  resort  for  feasting,  and  it  was 
there  that  Washington,  when  the  Revolutionary  War 
ended,  took  a  farewell  glass  of  wine  with  his  chief 
officers.  Boston  had  several  famous  inns  with  patriotic 
associations,  and  the  most  famous  among  them  was 

*In  the  next  era,  a  traveller  mentions  one  of  our  tavern  signs, 
under  whose  picture  of  a  headless  female  the  landlord,  during  the 
heat  of  the  French  Revolution,  had  inscribed  the  name  of  "the 
beheaded  queen  of  France,"  and  then  changed,  compliant  with 
local  opinion,  to  "the  silent  woman ;"  but  that  story  dates  back 
in  the  mother  country  to  Anne  Boleyn  and  Henry  VIII. 

2They  were  presented  as  a  nuisance  in  1741,  at  which  time  they 
numbered  about  a  hundred,  all  retailing  liquor. 


THE  THREE  PUBLIC  VOCATIONS      79 

of  two-storied  brick,  known  as  the  "Green  Dragon," 
whose  metal  emblem  crouched  on  a  rod  at  the  en 
trance;  there  the  Masons  used  to  meet,  with  Joseph 
Warren  for  Grand  Master,  and  there,  too,  sedition  was 
hatched  by  the  famous  conclave,  Warren,  Samuel 
Adams,  Otis,  and  Revere.  In  the  "Raleigh  Tavern," 
at  Williamsburg,  with  a  leaden  bust  of  good  Sir 
Walter  for  a  sign,  Virginia's  Burgesses  met  to  take 
action,  after  the  Governor  had  dissolved  their  House 
for  disloyal  expressions  to  the  Crown;  they  gathered 
in  the  "Apollo  Room,"  where  many  a  gay  ball  and 
dancing  party  had  been  given  by  the  Governor's  set 
in  more  subservient  years.  Stabling,  we  may  well  con 
ceive,  was  an  important  feature  of  the  inn  for  enter 
taining  travellers  of  that  day ;  and  we  find  a  Lancaster 
tavern,  in  Pennsylvania,  put  up  for  sale  in  1 772,  which 
had  stalls  in  its  stables  for  some  sixty  horses. 

When  a  Boston  hatter  opened  a  new  tavern  in  1770, 
styled  "The  Hat  and  Helmet,"  he  promised,  besides 
the  usual  entertainment  for  man  and  beast,  that  his 
house  would  be  "supplied  with  the  newspapers  for  the 
amusement  of  his  customers." 

Inns  in  colonial  days  at  our  trade  centres  furnished 
lodging  and  meals  to  men  without  families  who  en 
gaged  in  local  business.  A  Virginia  tavern  was,  in 
1772,  put  up  at  vendue,  where  twenty  gentlemen  had 
been  "constantly  boarded  at  £25  each  per  annum." 
City  taverns  were  of  such  publicity,  that  at  the  inn 
door,  auctions  used  to  be  held  of  horses,  carriages,  or 
indeed  of  slaves.  It  was  before  the  leading  inn  in  one 
provincial  town  or  another  that  our  forefathers  in  the 
years  of  riotous  resistance  burned  Stamp  Act  procla 
mations,  or  effigies  of  the  royal  officials  most  hateful 
to  them;  and  when  independence  was  declared,  here, 


8o  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

too,  were  bonfires  made  of  the  king's  arms  and  em 
blems,  torn  promiscuously  from  the  public  buildings 
and  borne  by  the  ringleaders  of  resistance.1 


For  inland  conveyance,  the  great  passenger-carrier 
of  this  primitive  era  was  the  stagecoach;  and  Ameri 
can  ambition  and  enterprise  organized  rival  extensions 
of  the  stagecoach  lines,  increasing  local  connections 
and  quickening  the  time  of  transportation.  On  the 
water,  pulling  by  oar  or  skimming  by  sail,  propelled 
both  passengers  and  freight.  People  travelled  much  by 
their  own  private  conveyances  and  teamed  or  propelled 
their  own  merchandise  from  place  to  place.  But  by  land 
or  water,  motive  power  in  those  days  was  limited  by 
the  speed  of  horses,  or  of  a  vessel  impelled  by  wind 
or  oars;  and  this  for  long  distances  must  have  been 
slow  enough  by  comparison  with  the  steam  or  electric 
appliances  of  locomotion  with  which  our  present  age 
is  familiar.  And  what  was  more,  the  vehicle  of  car 
riage  on  either  land  or  water  was  made  more  lasting 
and  durable  than  swift,  in  this  earlier  day,  as  suited  the 
British  temperament.2 

^hastellux,  in  1780,  complained  of  the  wretched  public  houses 
he  encountered  in  those  more  remote  parts  of  America  where 
he  casually  lodged  when  travelling.  "They  make  nothing  in 
America  at  an  inn,"  he  complains,  "of  crowding  several  people 
into  the  same  room;"  and  this  herding  together  prevailed,  to  his 
surprise,  even  among  the  rich  and  hospitable  Virginian  planters 
at  their  private  mansions.  The  vocation  of  innkeeper,  too,  he 
found  often  incidental  to  some  other  personal  pursuit  as  a  house 
holder.  Innkeepers  were  often  accosted  by  a  military  title  of 
rank  or  served  as  Justices  of  the  Peace,  maintaining  high  office 
and  political  importance  in  their  local  neighborhoods. 

2For  conveying  freight  long  distances,  pack-horses  were  used 
much  in  this  age;  and  we  are  told  of  their  appearance  among  the 
defiles  of  Pennsylvania,  fifteen  of  them  in  single  file,  tethered 


THE  THREE  PUBLIC   VOCATIONS      81 

In  Massachusetts,  coaches  for  public  conveyance  were 
first  established  in  1763,  or  somewhat  earlier,  when  a 
stage  route  was  made  up  between  Boston  and  Ports 
mouth;  for  when,  by  1771,  a  rival  was  operating  on 
this  route,  one  Mr.  Stavers  claimed,  in  a  newspaper 
notice,  that  his  was  the  original  stagecoach  and  post- 
chaise  line  between  these  points,  and  that  he,  in  fact, 
was  the  first  person  who  ever  set  up  and  regularly 
maintained  a  stage  in  New  England.1  Still  earlier, 
in  1756,  was  started  the  first  stage  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  three  days  through;  and  between 
those  choicest  termini  of  traffic  were  several  rival  lines 
and  rival  routes  before  the  Revolution,  involving  more 
or  less  change  by  water  transfer.  A  covered  Jersey 
wagon,  without  springs,  offered  the  first  rival  line  be 
tween  these  two  cities,  followed  (1766)  by  the  so- 
called  "flying  machine,"  namely,  an  improved  wagon 
on  springs;  the  latter  undertook  to  go  through  in  two 
days,  but  in  winter  took  three  as  before.  Shall  we 
ever  travel  literally  by  a  flying  machine?  In  1773, 
came  a  real  stagecoach  of  improved  pattern,  by  which 
one  might  journey  in  two  days  between  Philadelphia 
and  New  York,  paying  four  dollars  for  an  inside  seat 
and  somewhat  less  for  a  ride  on  top. 

With  lines  thus  steadily  extending  their  facilities, 
almanacs  of  the  day  began  to  publish  full  lists  of  the 
public  post  roads  with  the  stages,  among  other  colo 
nial  statistics.  Proprietors  themselves,  who  com 
bined  their  modest  capital  in  partnership  to  consoli- 

to  one  another,  one  man  leading  the  first  horse,  while  another 
looked  after  the  rest  of  the  line.  The  Conestoga  wagon  was 
first  used  in  Pennsylvania  under  another  name  at  the  time  of 
Braddock's  ill-fated  expedition, 

*M.  G., 


82  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

date  a  business,  would  accost  the  wayfaring  public 
with  the  most  conciliatory  deference  and  respect,  to 
solicit  their  favors;  the  stage  carrier  was  "their 
very  humble  servant."  But  all  did  not  run  smoothly. 
The  Bordentown  stage,  in  1772,  had  to  raise  the  fares 
of  its  passengers,  owing  to  the  high  price  of  grain. 
The  coach  between  Portsmouth  and  Boston  was,  in 
1768,  suspended  for  two  weeks,  because  of  a  distem 
per  which  affected  the  horses.  Our  good-natured 
countryman  had  often  to  stop  his  horse  when  passing, 
to  help  lift  the  coach  out  of  a  quagmire,  aiding  driver 
and  passengers.  Shocking  weather  and  shocking  roads 
made  spring  and  winter  transportation  distressing  and 
uncertain.  Hence  we  need  not  wonder  that  people 
travelled  in  those  days  rather  for  business  than 
pleasure,  and  took  most  of  their  recreation  within  a 
few  miles  of  home. 

There  were  "stage  boats,"  so-called,  at  this  period, 
which  supplied  a  water  connection  in  travel  for  both 
passengers  and  goods;  each  boat  well  provided  with 
the  best  provisions  and  liquors,  and  guaranteed  to 
make  its  trip  on  schedule  time,  "wind  and  weather 
permitting."  The  acme  of  stagecoach  travel,  on  a 
single  line,  consisted  in  attaching  four  good  horses, 
and  having  four  more  ready  for  an  exchange  on  the 
way.  Much  coasting  traffic  was  projected  in  these 
days.  By  1771,  a  sloop  sailed  regularly  once  a  fort 
night  between  New  York  and  Providence ;  while  brigs 
and  sloops  left  Philadelphia  at  intervals  with  freight 
and  passengers  for  Charleston  and  other  southern 
ports  along  the  coast.  On  that  smooth  Long  Island 
Sound,  through  which  glide  each  night  in  either 
direction  those  floating  palaces  of  our  present  day,  pro 
pelled  by  steam  and  brilliantly  lighted,  the  voyage  to 


THE  THREE  PUBLIC  VOCATIONS      83 

New  York  had  its  perils  in  bad  weather.  From  our 
few  chief  harbors,  packet  ships  plied  regularly  with 
passengers,  freight  and  the  mails  for  London,  Liver 
pool  and  Londonderry;  and  the  average  passage  was 
twenty-seven  days  between  London  and  Boston. 

All  baggage  in  such  transportation  was  to  be  paid 
for  according  to  weight  and  size;  but  each  person 
might  take  with  him  "a  small  bundle."  It  is  of  these 
"bundles"  that  we  read  much  in  the  newspaper  notices 
of  "lost"  or  "found."  Rival  carriers  would  offer  to 
take  the  greatest  care  of  all  "bundles  and  packages" 
— but  not  a  word  said  of  trunks.  Baggage  was  usu 
ally  left  and  claimed  at  some  local  inn,  which  served 
for  terminus.  Large  oaken  chests  of  clothing  were 
chiefly  adapted  to  sea  voyages;  and  where  one's  effects 
were  charged  by  weight  on  an  inland  journey  and 
shifted  so  frequently,  each  one's  disposition  must  have 
been  to  travel  with  as  little  of  a  load  as  possible.  In 
fact,  the  trunks  on  our  stagecoaches,  as  remembered 
long  after  the  Revolutionary  period,  were  small,  cov 
ered  with  deer  skin,  or  pigskin,  and  studded  with 
brass  nails.  One  kept  his  baggage  under  his  seat  and 
under  his  own  personal  supervision  as  much  as  pos 
sible. 

Friendly  companionship  must  have  been  much  pro 
moted  by  these  long  journeys,  so  full  of  humorous 
incident,  and  with  frequent  shifts,  besides,  to  give 
variety.  The  long  discussions  indulged  in  on  the 
route,  the  interchange  of  stories  and  of  personal  ex 
periences  for  all  on  board  to  listen  to,  the  naps  and 
yawns  almost  in  one  another's  arms  as  the  hours  grew 
tedious,  the  freshening  mug  of  flip  or  mulled  cider  at 
the  tavern,  where  the  horses  were  pulled  up  and  all 
got  out  for  a  change  of  posture  and  refreshment — 


84  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

all  this  must  have  tended  greatly  to  the  mutual  revela 
tion  of  character,  while  for  little  considerate  acts  of 
helpfulness  few  opportunities  could  have  been  better. 
Such  travel,  when  prolonged,  induces  life  friendships 
among  the  congenial  thus  casually  brought  together, 
and  it  affords,  moreover,  an  admirable  opportunity 
for  the  study  of  human  nature.  The  social  and  the 
surly  alike  reveal  themselves.  People  travelled  far 
less,  to  be  sure,  in  the  aggregate,  than  they  do  now, 
but  each  tour  brought  them  more  naturally  into  ac 
quaintance  with  one  another.  They  who  sought  to 
travel  with  real  seclusion  or  state,  had  to  go  by  private 
conveyance.  Public  transportation  treated  the  public 
alike,  while  staterooms,  sumptuous  palace  cars,  and 
meals  served  apart, — all  these  belong  to  the  modern 
luxury  of  a  republic,  in  the  development  of  distinc 
tions  fostered  by  modern  wealth  and  training. 


Permanent  bridges  on  a  costly  scale  were  seldom 
erected  in  this  age;  even  turnpikes  at  the  public  cost 
were  unpopular,  and  companies  with  capital  adequate 
to  such  undertakings  came  later.  At  Gray's  ferry, 
Philadelphia,  and  other  important  points  of  approach  to 
a  populous  city,  a  floating  bridge  might  be  seen,  or  per 
haps  a  bridge  of  boats.  For  fifteen  years  or  more  be 
fore  the  Revolution,  Boston  debated  the  project  of  a 
bridge  across  to  Cambridge,  but  not  till  after  the 
peace,  or  by  1786,  did  that  debate  bear  fruit.  Small 
bridges  spanned  small  streams,  but  ferries  served  com 
monly  where  the  water  space  was  considerable,  and 
of  these  the  traveller  or  post  rider  made  successive  use 
as  he  journeyed.  These  ferries,  owned  and  managed 
by  private  parties,  varied  with  the  importance  of  the 


THE  THREE  PUBLIC  VOCATIONS      85 

patronage.  Some  had  nothing  more  for  outfit  than  a 
simple  boat  or  skiff,  propelled  by  oars  or  sail.  For 
the  ampler  accommodation  of  passengers  and  their 
teams,  a  sort  of  flat  boat  came  into  use ;  that  of  Charles- 
town  ferry,  in  Massachusetts  (owned  by  Harvard  Col 
lege),  conveying  five  horses  at  a  time,  besides  men  and 
women,  which  was  more  than  the  average.  A  rope 
ferry, — such  as  a  foreign  tourist  may  still  find  upon  the 
Rhine, — took  Philadelphians  across  the  Schuylkill.  A 
rope,  which  stretched  over  poles  the  width  of  the  river, 
was  pulled  to  impel  the  ferryboat ;  and  if  a  vessel  came 
by,  the  rope  was  lowered  to  the  river  bed,  so  that  the 
vessel  might  sail  over  it.  At  Philadelphia,  in  1772, 
the  owner  of  the  "middle  ferry"  advertised  that  he  em 
ployed  three  sufficient  boats,  with  ropes  and  a  set  of 
ferrymen  as  good  as  any ;  that  he  had  complete  sheds, 
troughs,  wagons,  horses,  and  stables,  on  both  sides  of 
the  river.  In  view  of  such  commodious  arrangements, 
he  hoped  the  public  would  patronize  him  rather  than 
the  ferry  higher  up,  because  his  was  nearer  the  city, 
by  surveyor's  measurement.  Ferries  were  used  across 
arms  of  the  sea,  or  in  traversing  lakes,  as  well  as  for 
the  narrower  creeks  and  rivers. 


VIII 

DRESS   AND   DIET 

IN  dress  and  diet,  as  in  other  matters  of  the  indi 
vidual  life,  great  differences  prevailed  among 
our  colonists,  because  of  the  social  distinctions 
they  derived  from  Great  Britain.  The  Virginia  Tuck- 
ahoe  wore  fine  clothes,  drove  in  a  stylish  coach  with 
livery,  was  very  fond  of  horseback  riding  and  of  fair 
women.  The  planter  of  South  Carolina  took  his  fash 
ions  from  London  or  Paris.  In  our  other  provinces, 
north  or  south,  wealthy  men,  as  well  as  women,  of  the 
upper  set,  dressed  richly  and  even  gaudily,  following 
the  European  fashion.  Our  Copley  portraits — and 
those,  too,  of  Stuart  and  Trumbull, — show  the  rich 
ness  of  dress  then  prevalent  in  both  sexes  among  the 
better  colonial  families,  and  suggest  differences  of 
style  in  this  respect,  even  among  the  eminent.  Thus, 
in  the  two  companion  portraits  of  Hancock  and  Sam 
uel  Adams,  which  still  hang  in  Fanueil  Hall,  we  may 
contrast  two  leaders  of  affairs  whose  politics  brought 
them  closely  together;  the  one  foppish  and  fashionable, 
as  of  a  rich  and  recognized  family,  the  other  more 
closely  allied  to  the  common  people — Hancock  with  his 
gay  colors,  lace  and  frogs,  and  richly  embroidered  coat 
and  vest ;  Adams,  whose  clothes  were  rather  of  a  plain 
and  sober  claret. 

Such  early  paintings  recall,  moreover,  the  gorgeous 
and  rustling  gowns,  the  silks,  satins  and  brocades  of 


DRESS  AND   DIET  87 

our  colonial  dames  of  quality  and  high  breeding. 
"Silks  and  satins,"  Poor  Richard  used  to  say  in  those 
days,  "put  out  the  kitchen  fire."  Such  women  dressed 
in  imported  brocades,  lute-strings,  taffeties,  sarsenet, 
poplin,  serges,  shalloons,  silks  and  satins ;  they  adorned 
themselves  with  garnet  or  pearl  necklaces,  breast- 
flowers,  aigrets,  ruffles,  Brussels  lace,  and  handker 
chiefs  superfine;  silk  gloves  and  mitts,  satin  shoes  and 
silk  hose  gave  delicate  protection ;  muffs,  furs  and  tip 
pets  were  donned  in  the  winter.  They  sported  jaunty 
riding  hats  of  white  and  black  beaver,  with  feathers, 
or  warded  off  rough  weather  with  quilted  bonnets 
from  London.  Cambrics,  lawns  and  muslins  served 
for  summer  wear.  Dress  and  undress  caps  with  be 
coming  ribbons  were  in  demand  in  those  days;  their 
lawns  were  spotted  or  flowered;  their  handkerchiefs 
flower-bordered  or  checked.  This  was  the  era,  withal, 
of  stiff  stays  and  buckram — of  hoops,  besides,  which 
the  fair  freighted  one  would  manage  with  consum 
mate  art  and  decorum  when  steering  in  or  out  of  a 
room. 

Picta  vestimenta  were,  in  short,  in  that  age,  the 
style  for  ladies  or  gentlemen  of  fashion.  Gold  or  silver 
lace  on  dress  occasions  adorned  the  cocked  hats  and 
smallclothes  of  men  well  born  and  well  placed.  Their 
coats  for  cold  weather  had  ample  cuffs,  and  were  made 
with  skirts  reaching  to  the  knees  and  stiffened  with 
buckram,  while  tightly  fitting  inexpressibles  were 
lined  to  make  them  warmer.  No  cotton  fabrics  were 
worn  in  those  days,  and  scarcely  underwear  at  all. 
Hose  were  of  thread  or  silk  in  summer,  and  fine 
worsted  in  winter;  men  wore  no  suspenders,  and  tra 
dition  asserts  that  it  required  no  little  skill  to  keep 
one's  buckskin  breeches  well  above  the  hip.  Young 


88  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

bloods,  the  gay  and  the  gallant,  wore  swords,  withal, 
and  so  did  military  men;  but  elderly  civilians  carried 
gold-headed  canes  in  preference,  and  would  sit  in  pub 
lic  places  holding  the  knob  close  to  the  chin ;  the  gold 
snuff-box,  too,  was  used  and  offered  with  exquisite 
grace.  For  the  general  idea  with  men  of  rank  was  to 
look  imposing,  and  impress  upon  others  their  superior 
claims  to  distinction.  The  three-cornered  or  cocked 
beaver  hat  and  dressed  wig  aided  in  such  effect,  though 
adding  not  a  little  to  the  discomfort  of  the  wearer, 
when  under  full  sail,  particularly  when  the  sun's  rays 
were  hot.  Even  the  boys  of  good  family  wore  plain 
or  laced  hats  for  their  best  in  those  days.1 

For  protection  against  rude  weather,  we  hear  much 
of  the  camlet  cloak,  blue,  brown  or  red,  which  vied 
for  favor  with  the  great  or  top  coat.  During  the 
Revolution,  our  continental  officers  brought  Dutch 
blankets  into  temporary  use,  in  place  of  cloak  or  over 
coat.  Boots  came  into  fashion  with  the  Revolution- 
having  rarely  been  worn  before,  save  by  mounted 
army  officers.  Pumps  for  company,  adorned  with 
gem  or  paste  silver  buckles,  and  shoes  of  various  pat 
terns,  leather  or  morocco,  had  been  the  footwear, 
imported  or  native  made;2  "spit-blacking"  balls  serv 
ing  for  a  shine.  Ladies  wore  dainty  high-heeled  shoes, 
often  of  satin,  while  clogs  and  galoshes  or  pattens 
served  them  on  the  streets  for  rain  and  the  wintry  ex 
posure.  India  rubber  protection  against  the  weather 
was  unknown  in  those  early  days.  Cloaks,  with  some 
times  an  oiled  linen  cape,  after  the  pattern  we  still 

1Beaver  was  in  the  best  style,  but  castor  or  raccoon  skin  was 
inferior. 

2Lynn,  Massachusetts,  had  already  a  reputation  for  shoes;  and 
"slave  shoes"  were  largely  retailed  in  America  for  the  lower 
classes  of  menials  and  mechanics. 


DRESS  AND   DIET  89 

observe  in  the  sailor's  tarpaulin,  guarded  either  sex 
against  the  elements;  but  umbrellas  (called  "imbril- 
los,"  and  imported  from  India)  came  somewhat  into 
fashion  before  the  Revolution,  though  ridiculed  as  an 
effeminacy.  As  first  imported,  the  umbrella  was  of 
varnished  linen,  but  silk  became  the  stylish  substitute; 
made  of  colored  stuff,  green,  blue,  or  crimson,  this 
mechanism  was  borne  aloft  upon  a  rattan  cane.1 


Ceremonious  dress  and  ceremonious  manners  go  to 
gether;  and  if  men  of  fashion  set  the  pace  for  a  stiff 
and  artificial  style  of  adornment,  woman,  in  her  imi 
tative  zeal  to  please  and  conform,  was  sure  to  stretch 
farther  in  the  same  direction.  The  full  toilets  of 
women  of  fashion  were  elaborate,  especially  as  to  the 
hair,  which  was  arranged  on  crape  cushions  so  as  to 
stand  high  and  upright.  Sometimes,  as  we  are  told, 
ladies  had  their  heads  dressed  the  day  before  a  ball 
or  party,  and  slept  in  easy  chairs  to  keep  their  hair 
in  condition.  In  fact,  the  fashionable  of  both  sexes 
gave,  in  this  age,  at  home  or  abroad,  absurd  attention 
to  the  minutiae  of  wigs,  perukes,  and  hairdressing 
generally.  Women  endured  great  torture  in  this  re 
spect,  not  to  add  in  others,  and  sat  for  hours  at  a 
stretch  to  get  the  proper  crisp  to  their  curls.2  In  our 

*A  New  York  hatter  of  this  period  offered  a  superior  cocked 
hat  of  home  manufacture  which  had  a  device  of  his  own  for 
shedding  the  rain.  Franklin,  when  visiting  Paris  in  1767,  saw, 
to  his  surprise,  men  as  well  as  women  carrying  umbrellas  in  their 
hands,  which  they  extended  in  case  of  rain  or  too  much  sun ; 
and  he  computed  the  lesser  space  thus  occupied  on  the  street, 
than  where  rich  people  used  coaches  for  bad  weather,  as  in 
London.  4.  B.  F.  Works,  38. 

2Of  the  rollers  or  cushions,  stuffed  with  wool,  which  thus  fluffed 
out  the  natural  hair,  a  Philadelphia  paper  of  1771  mentions  one 


90  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

chief  towns  and  cities  were  barbers  and  hairdressers 
for  both  men  and  women,  ready  to  wait  upon  cus 
tomers  at  their  own  houses ;  and  at  Philadelphia,  an  ex 
pert  from  Paris  proclaimed  his  special  skill  in  making 
for  the  ladies  handsome  frissets,  "which  imitate  nature, 
and  may  be  set  on  with  very  little  trouble."  He  would 
arrange  brilliants  and  flowers  to  advantage,  dress 
ing  each  patroness  in  a  style  suitable  to  her  complex 
ion  and  natural  hair. 

Men  went  in  our  colonial  era  smooth-shaven,  and,  if 
of  the  upper  set,  sent  their  wigs  periodically  to  the 
barber  to  be  dressed.  After  Braddock's  defeat,  how 
ever,  King  George  is  said  to  have  discarded  his  wig, 
and,  at  all  events,  wigs  from  that  date  began  to  go 
gradually  out  of  fashion  both  at  home  and  in  these 
colonies.  Next  succeeded  the  mode  of  dressing  one's 
natural  hair  by  queuing  or  clubbing  it,  and  wearing 
the  tail  with  a  ribbon  or  in  a  black  silk  bag.1  The 
passion  grew  among  our  yeomanry  to  have  a  long 
whip  of  hair,  such  as  the  sailor  or  rude  plough  boy 
would  tie  with  an  eel  skin.  Hair  powder  was  used 
plentifully.2  Pomatum,  too,  our  barbers  kept  on  hand, 
with  ribbons  and  silk  bags  of  styles  to  suit  the  personal 
taste.  Hair  dyes  were  used  to  some  extent,  and  for 

which  fell  from  the  head  of  a  lady  who  got  injured  in  the  street, 
and  which  the  boys,  after  she  was  borne  away,  kicked  about  as 
a  football.  Toilet  arrangements  like  these,  however,  were  not 
mere  mysteries  of  a  lady's  boudoir,  for  a  local  wig-maker  of  that 
same  year  is  seen  advertising  a  hair  roll  of  his  own  contrivance 
which  weighed  but  three  ounces,  in  place  of  the  former  eight. 

^'Imagine  me,"  wrote  Franklin  in  1769,  of  the  new  French 
fashion,  "with  a  little  bag  wig,  showing  my  naked  ears."  4  B.  F., 
39- 

2Barbers  of  the  Stamp-Act  period  sold  it  both  for  wigs  and  the 
natural  hair;  one  in  Philadelphia,  at  the  sign  of  the  bleeding 
lady  and  barber's  pole,  made  it  himself,  and  of  a  superior  quality. 


DRESS  AND   DIET  91 

a  lady's  full  outfit  in  her  toilet  lavender  water  and 
sal  volatile  were  indispensable. 


"Cloathes"  (the  usual  spelling  of  those  days)  must 
thus  have  taken  up  much  of  a  provincial  man's  thoughts, 
if  he  claimed  to  belong  to  the  aristocracy.  Yet  we  hear 
of  these  splendid  suits — men's  as  well  as  the  women's 
— sent  with  economy  to  be  dyed  and  turned  and  then 
worn  again.  With  menials  and  mechanics,  of  course, 
and  our  simple  yeomanry,  there  was  no  such  elegance, 
save,  perchance,  in  the  wear  of  faded  finery  at  second 
hand  or  in  livery.  The  prevailing  dress  of  poor 
laborers  and  the  working  class  I  have  indicated  else 
where.  Mechanics  wore  the  coarse  apron  of  their 
craft :  caps,  and  plush  or  plain  leather  breeches  were 
the  common  garb  of  the  humble;  and  these,  too,  wore 
largely  their  natural  hair,  cropped  closely. 

In  provincial  times  the  farmer  and  his  sons  raised 
wool  and  flax,  which  the  wife  and  daughters  of  the 
household  spun  into  thread  and  yarn  and  knit  into 
stockings  and  mittens.  The  next  and  later  step,  when 
patriotism  preached  self-dependence,  was  the  cloth  of 
homespun  woolen  fabric,  for  coats  and  garments. 
Such  was  the  old-time  process  which  gave  to  humble 
women  one  of  those  industrial  employments  all  the 
better  for  being  conducted  in  the  home  and  family. 

There  were  a  few  public  or  meeting-house  clocks  in 
those  days.  The  plain  clock  on  the  staircase  might 
be  consulted  at  home — that  faithful  monitor,  clicking 
"never!  forever!"  as  the  poet  says;  but  watches, 
whether  of  gold  or  silver,  were  not  as  yet  in  common 
use,  being  bulky  in  make  as  well  as  expensive;  and, 
dispensing  with  fine  chains,  one  fortunate  enough  to 


92  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

own  a  portable  timepiece  would  carry  it  in  a  fish  skin 
or  a  case  of  imitation  tortoise  shell  and  use  a  plain  rib 
bon,  from  which  dangled  its  key,  with  perchance  a  gold 
seal  and  cornelian  stone  for  a  companion  ornament.1 
Spectacles,  moreover,  were  rare,  except  for  old  folks, 
for  the  young  kept  and  gloried  in  their  normal  eye 
sight;  but  temple  and  bridge  spectacles  (the  latter 
mounted  on  the  nose  without  side  supporters)  were 
on  sale  for  need,  though  clumsy  for  ornament.  Den 
tistry  was  rude  enough,  as  compared  with  the  present 
age;  but  surgeon-dentists  in  the  larger  towns  fixed 
false  teeth  singly  or  in  sets,  and  offered  to  do  such 
work  with  the  greatest  ease,  safety,  and  secrecy — yet 
not  guaranteeing  their  patrons  against  incidental  pain. 
"Essence  of  pearl"  was  a  common  dentifrice  of  the 
day.  But  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  our  people  as  a 
whole  took  no  great  pains  with  their  mouths,  so  far  as 
appearance  went;  and  long  after  Revolution,  our 
typical  young  woman,  as  described  by  travellers  from 
abroad,  was  chiefly  disfigured  by  her  poor  teeth — a 
criticism  which  must  long  since  have  spent  itself. 


As  for  diet,  plenty  and  variety  awaited  all  in  this 
new  world  who  chose  to  avail  themselves  amply  of 
nature's  free  abundance.  Deer,  wild  turkies,  pigeons, 
partridgevS,  were  readily  hunted ;  wild  hares  and  squir 
rels  were  so  many  that  people  looked  upon  them  as 
pests  for  devouring  grain ;  a  host  of  marine  fowl,  can 
vas-back  ducks  and  other  delicious  game  flocked  about 
the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake  in  the  autumn  months. 

1In  the  Virginia  Gazette  one  advertises  as  lost  in  1775  his  gold 
watch ;  it  is  described  as  having  a  neat  china  dial-plate,  an  imita 
tion  tortoise-shell  as  its  outer  case,  and  a  riband  showing  a  key. 


DRESS  AND   DIET  93 

Wild  honey  gathered  from  the  hollow  tree-trunks,  or 
the  sap  of  the  sugar  maple,  made  a  welcome  sweetener 
for  such  as  found  the  West  Indies  brown  sugar  or 
the  white  sugar  loaf  high-priced. 

Fish  of  the  greatest  variety  came  here  to  hook  or 
net.  The  seas,  the  rivers,  the  lakes  of  this  North  At 
lantic  area  yielded  wealth  to  our  English  tourists 
greater  than  any  gold  mine,  such  as  many  of  the  King's 
charters  had  prospected  in  vain;  while  the  colonial 
fisheries  of  New  England  proved  an  enterprise  that 
won  Burke' s  eloquent  encomium.  Lobsters,  in  that 
era  plentiful,  were  found  of  length  about  equal  to  that 
of  the  men  who  caught  them ;  crabs,  too,  of  a  size  much 
larger  than  we  see  in  our  day;  and  oysters  actually  a 
foot  long.  The  gigantic  breed  of  fish  lessened  much 
in  American  waters  as  human  captors  increased,  with 
their  intrusion,  yet  the  rivers  and  bays  were  still  amply 
stocked  for  human  sustenance.  In  1766,  at  New  York 
City,  when  meat  and  butter  were  costly,  and  provisions 
scarce,  the  common  people  were  saved  from  distress 
by  living  upon  fish  and  oysters. 

Codfish  was  already  New  England's  peculiar  em 
blem  and  a  leading  staple  of  her  commerce.  It  con 
sisted  of  three  sorts :  "merchantable,  middling,  and 
refuse;"  the  first  grade  being  sold  to  Europe,  the  sec 
ond  consumed  mostly  at  home,  and  the  third  exported 
to  negroes  of  the  West  Indies.  Dunfish — so  called,  we 
may  presume,  from  their  dun  color,  though  constantly 
advertised  as  "dumb-fish," — were  the  best  of  the  three 
in  quality.  Disdaining  to  observe  the  Popish  church 
man's  Fridays,  the  New  Englander  chose  Saturday  for 
his  fish  dinners,  and  no  Yankee  dinner  on  that  day 
of  the  week  was  complete,  while  the  eighteenth  century 
lasted,  without  boiled  codfish  on  the  table,  served  with 


94  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

pork  scraps  or  sauce  of  drawn  butter.  Fried  codfish 
balls  followed  for  the  Sunday  breakfast.  Codfish  with 
cream  pleased  the  palate  in  our  middle  provinces;  and 
all  these  native  dishes  were  from  a  single  variety  of 
fish,  when  salted  down  for  general  use.  Smelts,  hali 
but,  perch,  mackerel,  trout,  Potomac  herring  were 
among  the  many  other  kinds  of  fish  held  in  esteem, 
especially  when  freshly  caught ;  terrapin  was  a  luscious 
product  of  the  middle  and  southern  states,  since  rare 
and  costly  enough.  But  of  the  sturgeon,  Indians  par 
took  rather  than  the  white  man ;  while,  strange  to  say, 
salmon  and  shad,  best  esteemed  of  all  fish  to  most 
epicures  of  the  present  day,  were  in  that  earlier  age 
despised. 

Barnyard  fowls, — hens,  geese,  ducks  and  chickens, 
— were  raised  by  farmers  for  the  family  table,  with 
the  domestic  quadrupeds  besides.  Beef,  veal,  pork  and 
poultry  thus  supplied  the  table  from  one's  own  live 
stock.  Hams,  cured  in  the  smoke-house,  hung  in  the 
cellar  for  winter's  use.  Pork,  pickled  in  brine,  and 
corned  beef  helped  out  a  family  provender  for  the 
winter  season.  Good  housewives  soused  and  salted, 
besides,  many  kinds  of  fish  and  game;  for  there  were 
no  good  means  of  keeping  meat  fresh  in  mild  weather 
long  after  it  had  been  killed. 


Rice  went  northward,  as  well  as  abroad,  from  South 
Carolina.  Wheat  in  America  was  widely  cultivated; 
and  New  England  imported  most  of  her  ground  flour 
from  Maryland  or  Philadelphia,  her  own  soil  being 
given  largely  to  grazing  or  the  other  grains.  Rye 
grew  better  than  wheat  when  our  colonies  were  first 
settled,  and  Indian  corn  better  still.  Indian  corn,  in- 


DRESS  AND   DIET  95 

deed,  should  rank  in  history  as  the  great  indigenous 
cereal  of  America,  which  red  aborigines  cultivated  be 
fore  the  landing  of  the  white  man,  and  prepared  in 
telligently  for  their  own  simple  food.  Its  abundance 
and  variety  of  wholesome  nutriment  saved  our  Pil 
grim  fathers  from  starvation  during  their  first  intense 
tribulation,  and  instilled  into  the  British-born,  under 
Indian  precept,  new  tastes  and  theories  in  cooking. 
At  the  foot  of  the  old  Senate  staircase,  in  our  capitol 
building  at  Washington,  as  first  constructed,  may  be 
seen  columns  patterned  upon  stalks  of  the  Indian  corn ; 
and  surely  no  emblem  more  unique  or  appropriate 
could  be  designed  for  a  temple  of  this  new  world's 
development. 

Indian  corn  (or  maize)  and  potatoes,  let  us  bear  in 
mind,  are  the  two  great  indigenous  food  products 
which  the  soil  of  this  new  continent  gave  first  to  civ 
ilized  Europe;  and  when  one  speaks  of  Irish  potatoes, 
he  should  recall  that  Ireland  first  gained  that  essential 
plant  from  Virginia.  Beans,  once  more,  typical  of 
mental  culture  and  nourishment  from  the  days  of 
Socrates  and  old  Athens,  were  Boston's  peculiar  gift 
from  the  uncultured  savage;  for  they  were  baked  by 
the  Indians  three  centuries  ago,  in  earthen  pots,  just 
as  we  bake  them  to-day. 

Settlers  in  all  these  British  provinces  raised  kitchen 
vegetables  largely  for  their  private  tables;  and  they 
planted  their  own  orchards,  too,  which  blossomed  and 
bore  fruit  in  abundance — the  cheery  apple,  chief  of 
them  all  in  juicy  adaptiveness  for  the  sons  and  daugh 
ters  of  Adam,  and  still  consumed  by  the  people  more 
than  any  other  fruit.  Berries  and  grapes  grew  wild 
here  before  our  colonists  transplanted  them  for  garden 
cultivation.  An  asparagus  bed  yielded  in  those  times 


96  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  first  table  delicacy  of  the  season  among  native 
vegetables;  and  sweet  corn  came  last — not  with  toma 
toes,  however,  as  nowadays,  for,  as  yet,  the  tomato  was 
commonly  thought  poisonous. 

Nutmegs,  cinnamon,  pepper,  and  the  other  spices 
still  favored  were  thus  early  in  use,  though  much  of 
the  grinding  of  them,  as  well  as  of  coffee,  was  done 
at  home;  salt  in  America  was  largely  an  imported 
article,  from  Lisbon  or  Liverpool,  or  from  one  of  the 
British  Bahamas,  known  as  Turk's  Island.  Molasses, 
brown  sugar,  and  London  refined  sugar  were  used  for 
sweetening,  while  a  sugar  loaf  was  cut  by  shears  into 
lumps  for  company  occasions.  Lemons  and  China 
oranges  were  imported  as  an  ingredient  for  punch. 
For  this  was  a  tippling  age  among  men,  and  of  Amer 
ica's  early  settlers  of  the  sterner  sex  it  used  to  be  said, 
that  they  drank  water  only  when  they  could  get  noth 
ing  else.  Sobriety,  to  be  sure,  was  favored  by  the 
religious  and  those  of  strong  principle.  But  total  ab 
stinence  men  seldom  preached,  either  here  or  abroad. 

Excessive  liquor-drinking  was,  in  truth,  America's 
great  social  vice,  until  far  down  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  when  temperance  crusades  first  began.  A 
rude  climate,  hard  labor  and  exposure,  with  but  little 
light  recreation,  increased  the  indulgence  among  our 
common  people ;  while  convivial  habits,  after  the  coarse 
fashion  of  the  mother  country,  might  debauch  the 
upper  circles.  Idleness  and  ease  gave  to  one  class  oc 
casion  for  using  stimulants;  while  another  drank  to 
relieve  thirst  or  to  vary  the  tedium  of  life.  The  sale 
of  liquors  was  licensed  in  our  several  provinces,  so  as 
to  produce  a  revenue;  and  one  seldom  saw  a  respected 
city  merchant  or  a  country  grocer,  who  did  not  make 
liquors  of  one  sort  or  another  a  very  important  part  of 


DRESS  AND   DIET  97 

his  stock  in  trade,  as  well  as  an  inducement  for  indi 
vidual  customers  to  purchase.  Bakers  and  apothe 
caries  retailed  ardent  spirits.  Distilleries,  too,  were 
quite  a  respectable  industry.  Stern  Samuel  Adams  at 
one  time  ran  such  an  establishment  next  his  Boston 
dwelling-house,  though  he  did  not  succeed  well  in  the 
business ;  and  scores  of  such  factories  were  maintained 
near  the  chief  seats  of  commerce. 


Our  native  gentry,  when  they  took  wine,  preferred 
Maderia,  Oporto  or  Malaga,  to  French  wines,  true 
to  English  prejudices;  London  ale  and  porter  were 
imported,  with  brandy,  gin  (or  "Geneva"),  and  wine 
bitters  besides.  Philadelphians  brewed  hop  beer; 
ginger  was  worked  up  into  pop  or  other  compounds, 
but  America's  great  alcoholic  beverage  was  the  New 
England  or  Jamaica  rum,  distilled  from  molasses. 
Even  cider — that  delicious  crush  from  a  prime  orchard 
product — could  not  stand  on  its  own  more  innocent 
merit,  but  brandy  was  vaunted  as  its  fit  preservative. 

Rum  was  widely  commended  for  medicinal  use — 
as  a  summer  corrective  after  drinking  too  much  cold 
water,  or  as  an  ingredient  with  nauseous  physic,  in 
treating  the  bloody  purge.  Rum  punch  was  in  choice 
esteem,  flavored  with  shrub,  lemon,  or  orange  juice; 
and  so  was  grog,  or  plain  rum  and  water;  a  mixture 
known  as  toddy  when  sugar  was  added  to  it.  Often 
and  often  does  the  report  of  a  fatal  accident  in  those 
days  indicate  that  the  injurer  or  his  victim  was  drunk, 
or  that  one  who  rode  alone,  half-mellow,  fell  into  the 
snares  of  the  vicious,  to  be  robbed  or  murdered.1 

^n  rural  towns  of  New  York,  so  Chastellux  tells  us,  somewhat 
later,    much   intoxication   prevailed    on    New    Year's    Day;    and 


98  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Punch  was  dealt  from  the  flowing  bowl  at  weddings, 
funerals,  college  commencements,  and  on  public  occa 
sions  generally;  at  elections,  too,  where,  in  Virginia, 
candidates  of  the  gentry  were  expected  to  spend 
money,  not  to  bribe  but  to  "treat"  their  constituents. 
Travellers  by  stagecoach  freshened  the  nip  together 
when  dismounting  at  the  change  of  horses  to  stretch 
their  legs,  and  the  egg  flip,  heated  by  the  plunge  of 
the  red-hot  loggerhead  or  poker,  was  a  favorite  mix 
ture  for  cold  weather.  Liquors  were  kept  on  the  side- 
table  of  many  a  stately  mansion  for  guests  and  callers. 
They  were  served  at  auctions  to  make  bidders  fast 
and  furious  in  their  competition.1 

Hard  drinking  prevailed  among  our  colonial  gentry, 
much  as  in  the  mother  country;  and  in  the  bibulous 
feasting  after  a  hard  day's  sport,  men  of  fashion 
thought  it  good  fun  to  get  friends  into  that  state  of 
booziness  where  they  would  slide  under  the  table  and 
fall  asleep.  Most  convivial  songs  of  the  day  induced 
the  whole  company  to  drink  repeated  bumpers.  Formal 
toasts  with  the  clinking  of  glasses  were  the  common 
accompaniment  of  a  public  dinner;  while  the  custom 
of  drinking  healths  even  at  private  meals  caused  many 

boisterous  youths  made  midnight  rounds,  as  the  old  year  expired, 
with  uproar  and  the  firing  of  pistols,  calling  at  each  tavern  to 
get  the  guests  who  were  abed  to  send  money  downstairs  and 
treat  them  to  a  drink. 

*A  Boston  gazette  of  1771  recites  eighty  English  phrases  then 
current  in  the  vernacular  to  denote  a  good  fellow  who  is  more 
or  less  under  alcoholic  influence.  While  Dutch  colonists  liked 
beer,  most  of  British  stock  preferred  the  distilled  liquors.  We 
see  Philadelphia  Quakers  complaining  in  the  press  of  the  too 
frequent  drams  then  habitual,  and  of  early  temptation  in  giving 
young  children  a  taste  from  the  tumbler  or  letting  them  get  at  the 
sugar  leavings  of  their  elders.  In  the  New  York  Prices  Current 
of  1770  the  price  of  rum  is  quoted  next  after  bread. 


DRESS  AND   DIET  99 

to  drink  imprudently,  lest  personal  offence  should  be 
given.  That  fashion  seemed  all  the  more  absurd,  when 
people  sat  at  long,  cornered  tables  instead  of  round 
ones,  and  hence  could  not  well  see  the  fellow-guest  who 
saluted.  At  decorous  dinner  parties,  such  as  Wash 
ington  himself  gave  when  commander-in-chief  or 
President,  there  was  often  more  of  ceremony  than  com 
pliment  in  such  interruption  of  the  meal ;  and  strangers 
seated  far  apart  would  mournfully  fill  glasses  and 
drink  in  unison,  unable  to  exchange  a  word  with  one 
another. 

Tobacco  and  snuff  were  in  this  era  a  common  stimu 
lant  or  sedative,  according  to  the  temperament  of  the 
taker.  Tobacco  was  not  seldom  a  portable  standard, 
at  the  south,  as  a  substitute  for  money — just  as  it  be 
came  there  during  our  Civil  War;  and  we  read  that, 
in  1723,  Maryland  imposed  fines  payable  in  tobacco, 
for  selling  strong  liquors  or  brandy.  The  clergy  of 
Virginia  were  long  paid  their  salaries  in  this  conveni 
ent  commodity.  Tobacco  in  a  pipe,  or  smoking,  was  a 
great  solace;  but  our  people  chewed  tobacco  besides, 
while  cigars  came  in  a  later  era.  For  a  long  time, 
Virginia  tobacco  was  imported  to  England,  to  be  made 
up  there  and  reimported  for  colonial  consumption ;  but 
Philadelphia  makers  offered  their  "Kite-foot  tobacco" 
and  snuff,  by  1772,  as  equal  to  any  imported.  Tobacco 
was  one  of  the  red  man's  chief  indigenous  plants,  raised 
for  the  old  world's  renovation — to  some  a  detestable 
weed,  to  others  the  herb  of  supreme  pleasure. 


Americans  inherited  largely  the  British  tastes  and 
appetite, — with  abundance  of  meat  and  hearty  dishes 
plainly  cooked;  but  they  ate  too  fast,  and  the  hot 


ioo  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

bread  and  biscuits  of  which  they  partook  brought  on 
dyspepsia.  In  a  somewhat  later  era,  when  Jefferson 
brought  back  from  Paris,  after  serving  there  as  min 
ister,  a  fastidious  taste  for  French  wines  and  cookery, 
Patrick  Henry  denounced  him  on  the  stump  in  a  politi 
cal  canvass,  as  a  recreant  to  roast  beef,  and  one  who 
"abjured  his  native  victuals."  One  of  Poor  Richard's 
maxims  reflects  upon  the  uncurbed  native  appetites  of 
this  earlier  age :  "I  saw,"  he  says,  "a  few  die  of  starva 
tion,  but  hundreds  of  eating  and  drinking."  Sermons 
were  published  and  discourses  printed  in  colonial  al 
manacs  on  such  excesses.  But  our  people  were  hard 
workers,  commonly  in  a  hurry  to  get  through  the  meal 
hour,  intent  upon  the  cares  and  routine  of  life,  and 
little  given  to  table  relaxation. 

There  were,  of  course,  the  lighter  beverages,  such  as 
tea,  coffee  and  chocolate,  of  which  the  two  sexes  par 
took  together,  or  women  apart.  Bohea  came  much 
into  use  among  the  fair  sex,  by  way  of  stimulant; 
though  nervous  disorders,  it  was  claimed,  increased  in 
consequence.  Taxed  tea,  we  all  know,  was  emptied 
overboard;  and  in  those  throbbing  years  when  fam 
ilies  denied  themselves  of  spring  lamb  for  the  sake  of 
encouraging  wool  breeding,  and  when  seniors  at  Har 
vard  unanimously  resolved  to  wear  home-made  broad 
cloth  on  the  day  of  graduation,  the  women  of  America 
were  not  behind  in  noble  self-denial.  In  place  of  the 
Chinese  decoction,  a  native  berry  substitute  called 
"Labrador  tea"  came  widely  into  use  about  1768— 
"that  naseous  weed,"  one  writes  of  it;  and  the  spin 
ning-wheel  was  put  to  rapid  revolution.  Spinning- 
wheel  parties  were  given  by  New  England  "daughters 
of  liberty,"  who  would  rival  one  another  in  turning 
out  so  many  skeins  of  yarn  in  an  hour.  The  product 


DRESS  AND   DIET  101 

of  parish  contests  of  this  kind,  in  labor  and  materials, 
was  usually  bestowed  upon  the  pastor;  and  when 
Labrador  tea  was  served  up  at  the  parsonage  after 
wards,  with  other  refreshments,  the  young  men  came 
upon  the  scene  to  praise  the  busy  virgins  and  close  the 
occasion  in  singing  liberty  songs.  While  the  pleasur 
able  excitement  was  on,  women  dressed  in  homespun 
when  visiting,  even  to  handkerchiefs  and  gloves. 
"Save  your  money  and  you  save  your  country,"  was 
the  maxim  of  the  day.  But  by  1 772,  the  spinning  fad 
had  subsided,  and  ladies  of  the  higher  circle  went  back 
to  Bohea  and  their  London  fineries.  History  shows 
that  the  non-importation  league  worked  hard  for  our 
luxurious  consumers  of  British  goods,  who  at  heart 
were  fond  as  ever  of  them ;  and  that  the  middle  prov 
inces,  New  York  in  particular,  broke  down  badly 
under  so  strenuous  a  test,  causing  an  abandonment  for 
the  time  of  home-made  wearing  apparel,  and  of  home 
made  substitutes  for  the  Chinese  beverage. 


Franklin  sent  home  to  Philadelphia,  in  1758,  some 
breakfast  cloths,  which  he  picked  up  in  London,  where 
nobody  (as  he  found)  breakfasted  upon  the  "naked 
table;"  also  some  carpeting  for  the  guest-room  floor, 
and  some  printed  calicoes  (a  new  invention)  to  make 
bed  and  window  curtains;  and  he  looked  up,  besides, 
for  his  daughter  Sally  a  London  harpsichord.  Some 
China  bowls  and  coffee  cups  he  bought,  in  addition, 
and  their  interesting  little  figures  he  wished  his  wife 
to  look  at  with  her  spectacles,  for  they  would  well  bear 
examining.  As  he  travelled  about  in  the  course  of 
his  long  mission  as  colonial  agent,  he  could  not  forbear 
making  comparisons  between  resident  Britons  and  the 


102  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

people  of  his  own  land  in  point  of  average  comfort. 
While  the  spinners  and  weavers  of  England,  as  he 
noted,  wore  rags  that  they  might  make  cloths  and 
stuffs  for  all  parts  of  the  world — while  in  Scotland 
men  went  barefoot  to  export  their  shoes  and  stockings 
—while  in  Ireland  the  peasantry  lived  all  the  year 
round  on  potatoes  and  buttermilk,  shirtless,  so  as  to 
send  to  other  countries  beef,  butter,  and  linen — Amer 
ica  was  well  clad  and  well  fed.  In  England,  civil  so 
ciety  depressed  multitudes  to  the  savage  plane  that  a 
few  might  be  raised  in  rank  and  fortune.  On  the 
other  hand,  "every  man  in  New  England  is  a  free 
holder,  has  a  voice  in  public  affairs,  lives  in  a  tidy,  warm 
house,  has  plenty  of  good  food  and  fuel,  with  whole 
clothes  from  head  to  foot,  the  manufacture  perhaps  of 
his  own  family."1 

*4  B.  F.,  440  (1772). 


IX 

RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS 

WITH  the  rich  and  luxurious  of  a  community 
work  consists  in  devising  means  of 
amusement;  while  scholars  and  brain 
workers  seek  a  vacation  wherein  the  mind  may  relax 
its  energies.  But  toilers  with  the  hands — the  great 
mass  of  humanity — find  most  of  their  real  recreation  in 
life  by  turning  its  needful  work  into  pleasure;  and 
going  through  the  vale  of  misery  or  dulness,  they  use 
its  pools  for  wells  of  water.  Farmers  have  their  husk 
ing  or  logging  bees,  their  barn-raisings,  their  harvest 
homes,  and  Nature  herself  relieves  the  monotony  of  an 
agricultural  life  by  the  varying  tasks  of  the  seasons. 
The  mind  need  never  be  wholly  torpid  in  a  new  country. 
To  social  recreations  and  amusements  in  the  colonial 
period  our  common  people  did  not  strongly  incline.  On 
the  whole,  they  were  soberly  set ;  they  worked  hard  for 
a  living,  and  when  not  working  they  stayed  at  home  and 
found  ease  with  their  friends  and  families.  To  most  of 
our  native  born,  withal,  the  local  horizon  of  life  was 
not  ample;  and  from  one's  dwelling  house  as  a  central 
point,  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  might  have  described 
the  whole  circumference,  in  those  days,  of  average 
observation.  When  Americans  of  that  century  went 
out  to  see  the  world  they  travelled  by  horse  and  car 
riage,  and  such  meagre  vacations  as  they  might  allow 
themselves  were  passed  not  far  from  home.  Sunday 


104  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

recurred  one  day  in  seven,  and  on  rare  occasion  came 
a  secular  holiday  besides.  There  was,  of  course,  no 
pleasure  travel  on  the  Sabbath,  but  a  sort  of  surprise 
party  for  a  weekday  was  made  up  by  harnessing  the 
family  carryall  and  making  an  unexpected  descent,  with 
young  and  old,  for  a  dinner  and  a  day's  outing  at  some 
of  the  folks,  resident  ten  or  fifteen  miles  away;  for  a 
corresponding  absence  from  home  or  preoccupation  was 
never  to  be  presumed.  Long  rides  at  all  times  gave 
opportunity  for  breaking  the  journey  and  dropping  in 
upon  friends  unawares,  that  a  call  might  haply  merge 
into  the  acceptance  of  an  ampler  hospitality.  Surprise 
parties  made  thus  a  pleasurable  excitement  on  either 
side,  to  which  any  household  was  liable. 

All  this,  of  course,  involved  making  one's  self  at 
home,  and  the  character  of  the  entertainment  was  meant 
to  be  homelike,  though  putting  the  good  housewife  to 
her  best.  Americans  of  this  age,  as  a  whole,  were 
neither  vivacious  nor  given  to  the  lighter  dissipations 
of  life.  Chastellux,  whom  I  so  often  quote,  could  not, 
as  a  lively  Frenchman,  get  great  enjoyment,  even  from 
those  of  rank  and  fortune  whom  he  visited  here.  In 
bad  winter  weather,  as  he  relates,  when  snow  and  stress 
kept  our  country  gentlemen  in  doors,  the  hearty  eating 
and  drinking  went  on  earnestly  enough;  the  men  en 
joyed  some  good  conversation  among  themselves  while 
the  women  were  absent.  But  not  a  word  would  he  hear 
of  light  games  with  playing  cards  while  thus  con 
fined  to  the  house;  and  as  to  music,  drawing  or  read 
ing  aloud,  he  found  very  little. 


It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  table  games 
indoors  were  unknown  here  thus  early,  or  that  the  fair 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      105 

sex  took  no  part  in  them.  Among  those  strict  in  re 
ligious  tenets  playing  cards  were  widely  denounced  as 
frivolous  and  a  device  of  Satan;  yet  packs  were  cer 
tainly  imported  into  America  to  a  considerable  extent 
before  our  Revolution,  and  in  genteel  society  many  of 
the  lighter  games  were  indulged  in  by  both  sexes. 
Among  Philadelphia's  upper  ten  one  might  at  parties 
play  promiscuously,  though  "commerce"  was  the  only 
game  of  which  the  proper  approved.  It  was  in  Boston, 
as  late  as  1782,  that  Chastellux  played  his  first  game 
of  whist  after  coming  to  America;  and  there,  by  the 
way,  he  observed  that  social  leaders  were  much  dis 
posed  to  cultivate  foreigners  of  distinction  who  brought 
from  abroad  good  letters  of  introduction.  For  a  well- 
bred  tete-a-tete  in  our  higher  circles,  chess,  checkers  or 
backgammon  might  serve  to  beguile  the  long  winter 
evenings. 

While  the  Continental  Congress  sat  at  Phila 
delphia,  in  Revolutionary  times,  that  city  became  the 
centre  of  social  gayety  for  all  America,  despite  its  sedate 
atmosphere;  and  thither  flocked  a  motley  and  mutable 
society,  which  comprised  not  only  statesmen  and  civil 
ians  from  all  the  thirteen  States  or  colonies,  but  mili 
tary  officers,  besides,  of  the  Continental  Army,  and 
French  compatriots  on  war  and  pleasure  bent.  During 
the  winter  months  of  those  years  a  subscription  ball  or 
assembly  was  given,  with  dances  and  partners  arranged 
by  billet  and  signature ;  whereby,  as  French  beaux  com 
plained,  men  and  women  bound  themselves  as  by  pre 
contract  for  an  entire  evening.  Neither  waltz  nor  polka 
appeared  on  the  list  in  those  days;  but  programme 
dances,  such  as  they  were,  bore  such  names  as  "Bur- 
goyne's  surrender,"  "the  Campaign  success"  or  "Clin 
ton's  retreat."  Distinguished  patriots  and  their  wives 


106  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

figured  on  the  list  of  managers,  and  the  affair  came 
off,  after  the  London  fashion,  at  some  public  hall. 
About  midnight,  dancing  was  suspended  for  a  supper, 
after  which  the  ball  went  on  until  two  in  the  morning, 
the  final  time  for  dispersing. 

The  select  dancing  assembly  had  been  something  of 
a  social  function  among  the  colonial  gentry  at  our  chief 
provincial  capitals  long  before  the  Revolution;  and 
Jefferson,  one  of  those  Virginia  youths  who  were  fond 
of  dancing,  used  to  recall  with  delight  winter  balls  at 
the  Raleigh  tavern  in  Williamsburg,  which  he  used  to 
attend  while  a  college  student  at  William  and  Mary's. 
As  far  back  as  1765  and  the  Stamp  Act  we  read  of  a 
ball  given  at  Boston,  in  which  the  British  army  and 
navy  officers  were  prominent — a  brilliant  social  affair. 
In  1774  Virginia's  tide- water  gentry  honored  by  a  pub 
lic  dance  the  anniversary  of  St.  Tammany,  and  the  ball 
was  opened  by  men  dressed  in  Indian  costume.  But 
from  all  such  gatherings  mechanics  and  the  trades 
people  were  excluded,  for  social  lines  were  carefully 
drawn,  as  in  England. 

Dancing  schools  were  set  up  already  in  Philadelphia, 
Boston,  New  York  and  other  large  colonial  towns,  and 
the  agile  dancing-master  invaded  at  intervals  the  more 
quiet  communities,  to  instruct  people  in  the  graces  of 
fashion.  Many  such  instructors  were  French  immi 
grants,  versatile  in  the  polite  accomplishments.  It  was 
not  uncommon  for  one  to  teach  French  or  music  be 
sides,  to  give  lessons  in  fencing  with  the  small  sword 
or  in  playing  upon  the  violin  or  guitar.  The  sprightly 
foreigner  might  be  seen  mincing  the  steps  with  violin 
or  bow  in  hand,  and  showing  our  sexes  apart  how  to 
behave  in  fine  company.  A  dancing-master  from  Paris 
was  the  French  instructor  at  Harvard  College.  French 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      107 

women,  too,  helped  fill  the  conjugal  purse  in  such  pur 
suits  ;  and  one  fencing-master's  wife,  fresh  from  Paris, 
advertised  to  take  in  fine  washing,  starched  lawns, 
muslins  and  laces,  and  proffered,  moreover,  to  teach 
young  ladies  either  the  French  tongue  or  elegant  em 
broidery. 


"Concert  hall"  was  the  usual  name  of  the  building 
at  our  American  centres  where  dances  or  musical  per 
formances  came  off.  For  besides  subscription  balls 
were  subscription  concerts  for  people  of  means  and 
fashion.  A  series,  vocal  and  instrumental,  would  be 
announced  in  Boston,  New  York  or  Philadelphia,  last 
ing  perhaps  for  six  or  eight  weeks,  with  one  concert 
a  week,  and  drawing  "a  very  polite  company."  Such 
evening  amusements  came  off  rather  early,  6.30  being 
a  favorite  hour.  Gentlemen  or  their  liveried  servants 
purchased  for  both  sexes;  and  as  these  concerts  were 
select  affairs,  one  who  inclined  to  subscribe  could  learn 
the  terms  by  applying  at  the  hall,  all  season  tickets  being 
sent  to  the  several  subscribers.  The  usual  price  of 
tickets  for  a  single  concert  was  half  a  dollar.  Airs  and 
duets  were  sung,  and  some  skilful  solo  vocalist  or  per 
former  upon  the  violin,  French  horn,  hautboy  or  harpsi 
chord  gave  special  zest  to  the  programme.  Occasion 
ally  a  chorus  or  two  was  added  from  some  standard 
composition.  Sometimes  a  royal  regimental  band  would 
aid  the  performance,  especially  if  the  occasion  were  a 
public  one.  Handel  was  decidedly  the  favorite  com 
poser,  as  programmes  were  then  made  up,  and  selections 
were  given  from  his  "Acis  and  Galatea,"  or  his  Corona 
tion  anthem,  or  finally  from  the  "Messiah." 

Many  of  the  occasional  concerts  of  those  times  were 


108  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

benefit  concerts,  in  fact,  for  some  local  organist  or 
music  teacher,  who  arranged  and  conducted  the  per 
formance  for  his  own  emolument.1  At  a  Boston  con 
cert  of  1771,  Mr.  Propert  between  the  acts  performed 
some  select  pieces  on  the  guitar  and  "forte-piano"- 
the  latter  instrument  quite  a  novelty  then  in  these 
colonies,  and  named  with  the  compound  words  in  that 
order.  Sometimes,  where  the  audience  was  select  and 
composed  of  subscribers,  the  hall  was  cleared  at  the  end 
of  a  concert  and  the  young  and  frolicsome  remained  for 
a  dance.  On  rare  occasion  the  full  concert  programme 
was  published  by  the  press;2  but  it  was  not  in  good 
form  to  announce  publicly  the  names  of  the  performers, 
since  most  of  them  were  amateurs  who  moved  in  good 
society. 

Then,  as  in  all  eras  of  mankind  when  polished  people 
gathered  as  an  audience,  were  to  be  seen  the  elderly 
and  sedate,  who  came  to  be  edified  by  the  performance, 
and  the  young  and  giddy,  whose  chief  enjoyment  was 
in  one  another.  Bostonians  were  always  wont  to  carry 
their  complaints  to  the  press ;  and  an  anonymous  citizen 
of  the  former  description  is  seen  airing  his  grievances 
in  the  local  newspaper  in  a  tone  of  well-bred  sarcasm. 
"Should  not  these  young  lovers,"  he  inquires,  "either 

*See  in  Boston,  1772-73,  the  eager  rivalry  in  this  respect 
between  two  church  organists  of  that  day,  Propert  and  Selby,  as 
recorded  by  the  local  press. 

2The  programme  of  a  benefit  concert  given  in  1771  by  a  British 
regimental  band  may  be  worth  quoting  here.  Act  ist  comprised 
Handel's  overture  to  Ptolemy;  a  song,  "From  the  East  Breaks 
the  Morn;"  a  concerto  by  Stanley  and  a  symphony  by  Bach. 
Act  2d  began  with  a  duet,  "Turn,  Fair  Clora,"  followed  by  an 
organ  concerto  and  a  symphony  by  Stamily.  For  Act  3d  came 
an  overture  by  Abel,  a  duet,  "When  Phoebus  the  Tops  of  the 
Hills,"  a  violin  solo,  a  new  hunting  song,  and  a  symphony  by 
Ricci. 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      109 

sit  quiet  and  languish  while  the  music  goes  on,  or,  if 
wishing  to  give  a  vocal  accompaniment,  mount  the 
stage?  Would  not  the  thoughtless  young  lady  with 
greater  propriety  defer  her  animadversions  upon  fid 
dlers,  mantuamakers,  milliners,  high-frizzed  heads  and 
sword  knots,  until  she  retires  home  to  supper  with  her 
friends?  Might  not  the  two  sexes,  when  under  the 
irresistible  impulse  to  converse,  content  themselves, 
while  a  piece  is  being  performed,  with  the  usual  elo 
quence  of  the  eyes,  assisted  by  certain  languishing 
attitudes  of  the  body  and  half  a  dozen  melting 
sighs?" 

Music,  "heavenly  maid,"  gave  the  motive  for  many 
a  social  gathering  in  our  private  colonial  houses,  each 
guest  who  could  play  or  sing  tolerably  bearing  part 
in  the  general  entertainment.  One  young  lady  would 
play  the  spinet  or  harpsichord,  another  sing  with  a 
harp  accompaniment.  In  the  less  serious  efforts  there 
were  pretty  love  songs,  some  of  them  quite  sentimental. 
The  manly  vocalist  went  hunting,  roamed  the  sea  as 
pirate,  did  deeds  of  imaginary  prowess,  or  even  in 
mixed  company  avowed  himself  an  unrestrained  votary 
of  Bacchus.  Church  music,  with  anthems,  plain  psalm 
ody  or  fugue-like  phrasing,  was  often  heard  in  the 
houses,  and  adjusting  one's  voice  to  the  four-part 
meander  of  harmony  through  hymns  of  many  verses, 
friends  made  a  Sabbath  evening  happy  when  the  tuneful 
of  both  sexes  came  together.  Americans  in  a  cultured 
or  uncultured  way  were  fond  of  music,  and  the  rural 
singing-school  was  a  memorable  delight.  Young  men 
and  women  made  harmony  together  of  bass,  treble,  alto 
and  tenor  in  the  rural  choir  loft  Sundays,  looking  down 
upon  the  congregation  below,  who  turned  during  the 
last  hymn  to  face  them. 


no  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Other  entertainments  were  recognized  in  those  days 
as  worthy  of  the  people's  patronage.  Lectures  were 
advertised  at  our  larger  towns  with  philosophical  ex 
periments  "for  the  entertainment  of  the  curious." 
Such  exhibitors  pursued  Franklin's  tests  with  elec 
tricity,  or  produced  suction  by  the  air  pump,  or  showed 
how  iron  could  be  heated  in  cold  water.  While  the 
King's  accredited  agent  was  negotiating  with  the 
Indian  tribes,  a  Seneca  chief,  taken  by  his  white  enter 
tainers  to  one  of  these  shows  at  Philadelphia,  was 
strongly  impressed  by  the  artificial  thunder  and  light 
ning  of  the  lecturer's  creation.  Other  courses  were 
given  in  1772  in  our  Quaker  city  upon  "pleasant  and 
useful  geography,"  where  the  figure  and  motion  of  the 
earth  were  explained,  with  the  moon's  phases  as  affect 
ing  wind  and  tide.  One  favorite  lecturer  in  these 
colonies,  less  serious,  made  "Heads"  his  subject  in  a 
so-called  "moral  and  satirical"  exhibition.  Wigs  and 
ladies'  headdresses  he  would  put  on  or  off  in  turn,  with 
grimace  and  mimicry  appropriate  to  each  wearer ;  songs 
were  interspersed,  and  the  performance  usually  wound 
up  with  some  comic  or  dramatic  recitation.  Nor  even 
thus  early  was  the  roving  magician  of  two  hemispheres 
wanting,  who  had  had  the  honor  of  appearing  before 
sundry  crowned  monarchs  of  Europe,  at  their  palaces, 
and  yet  was  not  too  proud  to  perform  privately  in  any 
plain  citizen's  house  for  a  special  remuneration.1 

'One  of  these  "masters  of  sleight  of  hand  and  magic,"  who 
exhibited  his  "surpassing  performances"  at  a  shilling  a  head, 
thus  epitomizes  his  feats  in  the  Pennsylvania  Chronicle  of  1769: 
(i)  He  produced  fruit  on  a  table  as  natural  as  though  grown 
on  trees.  (2)  He  showed  an  infallible  method  of  curing  all 
scolding  wives.  (3)  He  devoured  iron  and  steel  as  ladies  would 
eat  a  bit  of  bread  and  butter,  and  washed  down  the  food  with 
liquor  which  streamed  from  several  parts  of  his  body,  "to  the 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF         v^ 

MUSEMENTS      in 

The  ingenious  Mrs.  Wright  was  another  caterer  to 
public  recreation  in  those  days.  Wonderful  imitations 
of  nature  were  comprised  in  her  wax-work  collection; 
and  various  personages  of  distinction  in  the  Old  and  New 
World  had  condescended  to  sit  to  her  for  their  "effigies" 
while  she  was  abroad,  his  Majesty  himself  among  the 
number.  Dr.  Franklin,  Garrick,  the  actor,  and  Mrs. 
Catherine  McCauley,  "the  celebrated  female  his 
torian,"1  were  among  the  life-like  specimens  to  be  seen 
in  her  show;  while  imaginary  figures  presented  Cain's 
murder  of  Abel  and  the  treachery  of  Delilah  to  Sam 
son.2 

Feats  of  horsemanship  were  displayed  on  pleasant 
afternoons  for  several  weeks  during  the  autumn  of 
1773,  at  tne  bottom  of  the  mall  in  Boston  Common, 
by  a  Mr.  Bates,  another  protege  of  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  who  condescended  to  a  tour  of  these  colonies. 
He  would  mount  and  manage  one,  two  or  three  horses, 
and  his  performance  ended  with  an  equestrian  bur 
lesque  entitled  "The  Tailor  Riding  to  Brentford."  Seats 
were  arranged  secure  from  danger  at  his  exhibitions, 

amaze  of  the  spectators."  (4)  He  dissolved  silver  and  other 
metal  without  the  help  of  fire.  (5)  He  showed  how  a  Prussian 
spy  vanished  in  the  French  camp  and  then  reappeared  in  Prussia 
with  his  report.  Besides  all  this,  he  performed  various  tricks 
with  eggs,  money  and  cards ;  he  showed  the  shape  and  form  of 
the  person  designed  for  one's  future  spark  or  mistress,  and  fore 
told  what  lady  in  the  audience  would  be  first  married;  "with 
fifty  or  more  other  imposing  things  too  tedious  to  be  inserted." 

1This  learned  lady,  whose  name  anticipates  the  greater  historian 
of  the  next  century,  presented  in  1772  a  set  of  her  works,  in  six 
volumes,  to  the  Redwood  Library  of  Newport. 

2While  these  wax-works  were  in  New  York  City  for  exhibition, 
children  at  their  careless  play  set  her  house  on  fire,  and,  most 
unfortunately,  the  whole  collection  perished,  with  the  exception 
of  Whitefield  and  John  Dickinson,  both  of  whose  figures  were 
rescued  from  the  flames. 


ii2  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

but  the  spectator  was  kindly  requested  to  bring  no  dogs 
with  him.  It  appears  that  this  new  courtier  of  the 
public  attempted  the  exorbitant  price  of  a  dollar  for 
the  best  seats  at  his  performance;  but  jealous  opinion 
compelled  him  to  lower  his  rates.  For  in  an  angry 
pamphlet  which  came  out  in  Boston,  styled  "Bates 
Weighed  in  the  Balance,"  it  was  proven  that  his  exhi 
bitions  at  such  a  price  were  impoverishing,  disgraceful 
to  human  nature  and  a  downright  breach  of  the  Eighth 
Commandment. 

Exhibitions  in  those  early  days  involved,  we  may 
infer,  no  such  lavish  outlay  as  is  now  customary;  and 
claims  upon  the  public  were  put  forward  tentatively 
and  with  much  deference.  A  maiden  dwarf,  fifty-three 
years  old  and  only  22  inches  high,  who  had  come  to 
pay  a  visit  in  America  "at  the  advice  of  some  gentle 
men,"  offered  to  exhibit  herself  as  a  show  to  such 
ladies  and  gentlemen  as  were  desirous  of  gratifying 
their  curiosity,  at  a  shilling,  lawful  money,  for  each 
person.  But  the  mountebank  drew  to  his  free  show 
a  gaping  and  impecunious  crowd ;  and  in  1771  a  fearful 
catastrophe  was  nearly  the  result  of  such  a  gathering 
near  New  York  City.  An  imposingly  dressed  quack 
doctor,  who  sold  his  nostrums  from  a  movable 
stage  in  Brooklyn  and  diverted  bystanders  with  his 
harangues,  aided  by  the  tricks  of  a  merry  andrew, 
drew  hundreds  across  the  East  River  daily.  Once  at 
sunset,  when  the  day's  business  was  over,  a  crowd  of 
returning  spectators  swarmed  upon  the  Brooklyn  ferry 
boat  to  return,  no  of  them  in  all.  The  overcrowded 
vessel  struck  a  rock,  and  the  loss  of  life  would  have  been 
immense  had  not  those  in  danger  been  rescued  at  the 
last  moment  by  other  boats,  which  struck  out  boldly 
from  the  shore  to  save  them.  The  New  York  press 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      113 

sermonized  upon  the  lasting  impression  to  be  made 
by  this  incident  upon  all  concerned — first  by  the  im 
minent  prospect  of  immediate  death,  and  next  by  so 
Providential  a  deliverance. 


But  theatricals  in  that  age  fared  hard  in  most  prov 
inces,  so  strongly  was  the  prejudice  of  our  people  set 
against  them,  whatever  might  be  said  for  other  public 
amusements.  Virginia  and  her  rulers,  however,  showed 
much  tolerance  in  that  respect;  and  the  first  dramatic 
performance  ever  given  on  our  American  mainland 
by  a  regular  company  of  actors,  sheltered  in  a  suitable 
auditorium,  was  seen  at  Williamsburg,  the  capital  of 
that  province,  on  the  5th  of  September,  1752.  Shake 
speare  most  fitly  introduced  the  British  drama  to  our 
new  world;  and  the  curtain  rose  to  his  "Merchant  of 
Venice,"  a  farce  entitled  "Lethe"  closing  the  perform 
ance.  It  was  Lewis  Hallam  who  organized  these  players 
under  the  style  of  the  "American  Company;"  they  were 
brought  over  from  London  in  May,  and  performed  in 
Annapolis  and  the  Maryland  colony,  so  some  assert,  as 
early  as  July,  and,  hence,  previous  to  the  Williamsburg 
performance.1  But  the  theatre  at  Williamsburg,  fitted 
up  and  opened  by  direct  permission  from  Governor 
Dinwiddie,  had  the  full  equipment  of  pit,  box,  gallery 
and  stage.  Both  Maryland  and  Virginia  gave  en 
couragement  to  Hallam' s  company  in  those  years,  and 
furnished  good  audiences  at  Annapolis  and  Williams 
burg  until  the  Revolution  broke  out,  when  amusements 
in  the  colonies  were  mostly  prohibited  by  local  law, 
and  the  company  sailed  for  the  British  West  Indies, 
having  meanwhile  performed  occasionally  in  Charles- 
1See  Scharf's  Baltimore. 


ii4  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ton,  South  Carolina,  and  in  the  great  middle  prov 
inces. 

Garrick  led  in  the  British  theatricals  of  that  era,  and 
here,  as  in  London,  his  taste  and  style  as  actor  and 
purveyor  for  the  stage  predominated.  Players  alter 
nated  between  the  grave  and  gay ;  "The  Beggar's  Opera" 
was  the  favorite  among  comic  musical  dramas,  and  an 
evening  performance  which  began  with  solemn  tragedy 
would  close  with  a  roaring  farce.  This  "American 
Company"  was  heralded  as  from  London ;  and  affection 
or  disaffection  toward  the  mother  country  had  much 
to  do  with  determining  the  public  attitude  toward  it. 
Provincial  governors  gave  generally  a  readier  license 
than  the  local  legislatures,  and  citizens  of  the  court  and 
Tory  party  favored  the  drama  under  such  auspices, 
while  the  rebellious  Whigs  opposed  it. 

In  New  York  City  a  regular  theatre  was  opened  in 
1761,  under  the  patronage  of  Governor  Delancy,  whom 
the  Assembly  and  its  Presbyterian  leaders  violently 
opposed  on  that  issue,  claiming  that  all  theatricals 
tended  to  debauch  the  public  morals.  There,  in  May, 
1766,  while  distress  extensively  prevailed,  religious 
opposition  pleaded  specially  the  temptation  to  which  the 
poor  were  exposed  at  such  a  time  to  squander  their 
money  foolishly.  The  wrath  of  the  inhabitants  was 
accordingly  kindled.  A  mob  broke  through  the  doors 
of  the  little  theatre  with  noise  and  tumult  just  as  the 
drama  began ;  the  play  was  interrupted,  and  actor  and 
audience — those  before  and  those  behind  the  foot 
lights — fled  for  their  lives.  Some  were  dangerously 
hurt;  the  theatre,  no  solid  structure,  was  quickly  de 
molished,  and  a  bonfire  was  made  of  the  remnants.1 
Yet  reaction  came ;  and  a  few  years  later  New  Yorkers 
1M.  G.,  1766. 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      115 

enjoyed  the  play  phlegmatically  at  a  new  theatre  on 
John  Street.  There,  the  American  Company,  by  per 
mission  of  his  Excellency  the  Governor,  opened  in 
April,  1772,  with  comedy  and  farce,  continuing  its 
season  for  six  weeks.  Milton's  "Comus,"  one  of  the  plays, 
gave  scope  for  fairy  scenes,  transparencies  and  a  rude 
sort  of  ballet;  while  another  play  of  less  lofty  poetic 
merit  concluded  with  a  country  dance  by  all  the  char 
acters.  The  band  of  his  Majesty's  regiment  of  royal 
Welsh  fusileers  was  detailed  at  these  performances  by 
way  of  orchestra.  The  doors  opened  at  5.30  in 
the  afternoon,  and  the  performance  began  an  hour 
later. 

Both  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  performances 
in  those  days  were  commonly  set  for  once  or  twice  in 
the  week.  At  Philadelphia  by  1772  we  see  a  new 
American  theatre  in  the  suburb  of  Southwark,  where 
performances  went  on  "by  authority,"  as  the  play  bill 
announced.  Sometimes  the  programme  was  "Romeo 
and  Juliet,"  followed  by  the  "Old  Maid ;"  sometimes  the 
comic  opera  "Love  in  a  Village"  was  afterpiece  to  the 
"Mourning  Bride."  A  new  play  which  had  quite  a  good 
run  was  styled  "The  Shipwreck  of  the  Brothers,"  and  the 
local  press  vouched  for  the  sentiments  of  this  highly 
attractive  drama  as  "of  the  utmost  propriety."  The 
doors  of  this  theatre  were  opened  at  4  and  the  play 
began  at  6  o'clock  sharp.  Places  in  the  boxes  might  be 
reserved  by  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  sent  their 
servants  at  the  former  hour.  Tickets,  "without  which 
no  persons  could  be  admitted,"  were  sold  at  the  bar 
of  the  coffee  house.  The  boxes  were  priced  at  75.  6d. ; 
the  pit  at  55.;  the  gallery  at  35.  Malicious  rogues 
broke  into  the  gallery  one  day  and  carried  off  the 
iron  spikes  which  divided  the  gallery  seats  from  the 


n6  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

upper  boxes;  a  reward  was  offered  for  their  appre 
hension.1 

Elocution,  or  the  so-called  "lecture,"  was  a  substi 
tute,  or  rather  subterfuge,  for  the  play  in  some  Ameri 
can  centres,  while  laws  or  the  local  magistrates  placed 
theatricals  under  the  ban.  Thus  in  1769,  at  Philadel 
phia,  began  a  series  of  readings,  which  soon  merged 
into  the  recitation  of  a  play  or  of  a  whole  opera,  such 
as  "Love  in  a  Village,"  with  all  the  music  and  parts.  So, 
too,  in  Boston,  that  same  year,  at  a  large  room  in 
Brattle  Street,  were  sung  all  the  songs  and  personated 
all  the  characters  of  the  popular  "Beggar's  Opera;"  an 
experienced  actor  and  singer  proposing  in  his  printed 
card  "to  enter  into  the  different  humors  or  passions  as 
they  change  throughout."  In  this  Puritan  town  raged 
through  the  following  year  a  tempest  of  controversy 
between  the  strait-laced  and  the  scoffers.  One  pam 
phlet  in  which  a  polemic  divine  arraigned  the  stage  as 
"the  highroad  to  hell"  called  forth  a  response,  dated 
from  London,  applying  a  like  epithet  to  the  pulpits. 
Such  blasphemy  boded  little  good  to  the  cause  of  the 
drama.  The  laws  of  the  Massachusetts  province  still 
sternly  forbade  play-acting,  and  Boston's  selectmen 
suppressed  theatricals  with  a  firm  hand. 


Southwark  theatre,  the  only  one  in  or  about  Philadelphia 
until  after  our  Revolution,  appears  to  have  been  first  erected  in 
1766  to  accommodate  the  Hallam  Company,  which  played  after 
1759  in  that  city  to  fairly  good  houses.  But  theatricals  in  Phila 
delphia  had  fared  hardly  at  first.  According  to  Mr.  Watson, 
the  "Tragedy  of  Cato"  was  enacted  there  as  early  as  1749.  The 
Quakers  expressed  their  disgust,  and  the  magistrates  drove  the 
players  from  the  city.  In  1754,  once  more,  under  a  permission 
carefully  restricted  in  terms,  theatrical  performances  were  re 
sumed  at  Philadelphia,  while  those  opposed  to  the  stage  sent 
broadcast  their  pamphlets  of  denunciation.  —  Watson's  Phila 
delphia, 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      117 

In  vain  did  our  Royalists  contend  that  an  act  of 
Parliament  had  the  effect  of  superseding  a  provincial 
prohibition  so  as  to  make  dramatic  entertainments  law 
ful  in  fact  throughout  all  America.  The  trend  of  native 
politics  certainly  was  not  to  sustain  a  constitutional 
theory  of  that  color ;  and  the  more  theatricals  appealed 
to  the  public  as  a  political  issue,  upheld  with  the  Tory 
cause,  the  more  intense  became  the  hostility  of  patriots. 
During  the  bloody  strife  of  independence,  British 
officers,  while  in  forcible  control  of  Boston,  New  York 
or  Philadelphia,  might  give  scope  to  dramatic  perform 
ances;  but  as  a  rule,  in  all  these  thirteen  colonies  the 
Revolutionary  War  swept  plays  and  play-actors  aside, 
with  all  other  frivolous  amusements,  and  their  rein 
statement  was  at  least  postponed  to  a  new  era  of  inde 
pendence  and  union. 


Besides  the  indoor  recreations  I  have  described  were 
many  borrowed  or  adapted  from  the  mother  country, 
both  romping  and  sedate.  Blind  man's  buff — or  per 
haps  "still  palm,"  its  less  boisterous  substitute — befitted 
a  rustic  frolic ;  and  so,  still  better,  those  various  games 
which  mate  off  partners — girls  and  fellows — to  the 
amusing  confusion  of  the  bashful.  Forfeits  in  the 
games  of  both  sexes  together  induced  kissing  and  other 
familiarities;  while  bundling,  the  coarsest  of  all  pro 
miscuous  frolics  of  the  embracing  sort,  seems  to  have 
been  known  in  the  middle  provinces  and  New  England, 
if  not  brought  over  from  the  mother  country.  In 
dances,  however,  the  sexes  maintained  their  distance 
better  than  in  modern  times. 

From  Strutt  and  other  English  writers  of  that  day  we 
gain  insight  into  the  out-of-door  sports  and  pastimes 


n8  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

of  the  people  of  Merry  England,  and  these  came  nat 
urally  enough  to  our  English  colonies  also.  Cricket 
was  never  popular  in  this  country ;  it  was  a  slow  game, 
and  required,  besides  a  holiday,  some  costly  preparation 
on  chosen  grounds.  But  games  rapidly  played,  easily 
improvised  on  any  open  lot,  and  inexpensive  to  arrange, 
such  as  football,  marbles,  kite-flying,  baseball  and 
hockey,  were  much  in  favor  here.  In  climbing,  jump 
ing,  leaping  and  wrestling,  amateurs  measured  them 
selves  against  one  another.  Bowling,  too,  and  pitching 
quoits  found  their  votaries.  But  the  gymnasium  had 
scarce  an  existence,  for  people  trained  their  muscles 
over  daily  tasks  which  yielded  something  in  return. 
During  our  cold  northern  winters,  the  steel-shod 
skater  skimmed  the  frozen  pond  or  river;  while  swim 
ming  in  the  summer  time  was  a  pastime  everywhere  to 
which  nature  freely  invited.  So  good  a  swimmer  was 
Franklin  in  his  youth  as  to  astonish  even  Englishmen 
by  his  feats  in  the  Thames  while  serving  his  brief 
apprenticeship  abroad;  and  in  fact  he  nearly 
missed  the  high  destiny  in  store  for  him  in  the  land 
of  his  birth,  for  he  once  thought  of  becoming  a  Lon 
don  athlete  and  opening  in  that  city  a  swimming 
school. 

They  who  kept  a  horse  and  carriage  were  not  at  a 
loss  for  riding  parties  in  summer  or  winter;  nor  for 
going  sparking  with  a  single  sleigh  or  sulky.  Punch 
or  a  mug  of  flip  warmed  the  inner  extremities  when 
the  merry  sleighers  alighted  at  some  country  tavern, 
perchance  to  tread  a  measure  on  its  polished  parlor  floor 
before  betaking  themselves  once  more  to  the  buffalo 
robes  and  jangle  of  bells  on  the  homeward  trip,  while 
the  stars  twinkled  in  the  dark  canopy  overhead.  Of 
summer  recreations,  chiefly  among  the  leisure  set  or 


RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS      119 

those  who  found  a  holiday,  tradition  preserves  a  record. 
New  Yorkers  made  excursions  up  the  Hudson  or  East 
River  to  enjoy  a  turtle  or  fishing  frolic,  or  took  a  day's 
picnic  in  the  woods  together.  Rhode  Islanders  had 
even  thus  early  their  clambake  or  chowder  parties. 
Thirty  or  forty  ladies  and  gentlemen  would  drive  a 
few  miles  out  of  town  to  meet  and  dine,  amuse 
themselves  among  nature's  surroundings,  and  re 
turn  in  their  chaises  suitably  paired.  We  see 
foreign  caterers  contending  for  patronage  of  this 
character.1 

An  exhibition  of  fireworks  gave  emphasis  already  to 
a  public  or  private  celebration.  From  China  we  derive 
the  pyrotechnic  art,  in  adapting  a  deadly  explosive  for 
harmless  sport  and  display,  which  nations  more  civ 
ilized  employ  rather  for  the  destruction  of  their  fellow- 
men.  Our  ancestors  here  could  use  gunpowder  for 
serious  effect,  as  the  course  of  that  century  showed ;  the 
wild  beast,  the  savage,  the  redcoat,  dropped  before  their 
steady  aim ;  but  beyond  flashing  off  the  black  grains  or 
firing  a  salute,  they  seldom  wasted  those  destroying 
compounds  upon  mere  effect.  London,  however,  sent 
over  its  pyrotechnist  to  minister  to  colonial  allegiance 
and  enhance  the  pomp  of  royal  birthdays.  Thus  in 
1772,  on  an  occasion  when  Philadelphia's  State  House 
was  to  be  illuminated  and  a  grand  concert  given  "by 
permission,"  the  day's  celebration  was  arranged  to  con 
clude  with  "a  superb  firework,  such  as  the  performers 

*In  the  suburbs  of  Philadelphia,  a  Frenchman  opened  a  place 
called  "Labanon,"  and  offered  to  his  patrons  of  the  two  sexes 
choice  tea,  coffee,  bottled  mead,  cakes,  fruits  and  comfits.  He 
praised  his  place  as  well  adapted  to  those  who  came  to  visit  the 
bettering  place  or  hospital  near  by;  and  none,  he  assured  his 
patrons,  would  be  admitted  on  his  premises  but  orderly,  genteel 
and  reputable  people. 


120  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

humbly  suppose  has  never  before  been  seen  in  America." 
The  tickets  for  concert  or  fireworks  were  to  be  sold 
separately.  "Vivant  rex  et  regina"  was  the  loyal 
ejaculation  with  which  the  advertisement  of  this  exhi 
bition  ended. 


COLONIAL  LITERATURE 

OUR  Revolutionary  ancestors  were  surely  no 
great  readers  of  books  or  newspapers.  To  the 
great  majority  among  them  came  the  necessity 
of  daily  toil,  while  idlers  devoted  their  chief  time  to 
their  families  or  to  out-of-door  life  and  social  pleasure. 
Our  people  seldom  wore  spectacles  before  they  had 
passed  their  prime;  their  eyesight  was  well  preserved, 
and  they  learned  to  master  what  befitted  the  immedi 
ate  pursuit  in  life  and  little  more.  An  appetite  for 
reading  and  self-improvement  was  here  and  there 
strong  among  the  lowly  born;  the  comparatively  few 
bred  to  leisure  might  add  literary  culture  to  their  other 
accomplishments;  but  this  was  an  age  for  developing 
rather  the  rudiments  of  civilization  on  a  new  soil  and 
under  new  conditions,  leaving  the  ripe  fruitage  to 
posterity. 

Yet  books  had  here  their  friends,  and  a  moderate 
amount  of  reading  might  be  mastered  from  year  to  year. 
Circulating  libraries — well-assorted  volumes  which 
neighbors  might  pass  from  hand  to  hand — scarcely  ex 
isted  thus  early  in  rural  towns.  The  resident  clergy  or 
gentry  might  make  themselves  local  benefactors  by 
lending  from  their  fairly  stocked  shelves ;  and  since  the 
homes  of  our  yeomanry  had  each  its  little  cupboard  pile 
of  books,  which  gained  accessions  from  time  to  time, 
like  other  family  furniture,  one's  thirst  for  reading 


122  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

went  not  wholly  unquenched.  And  a  fact  now  quite 
noticeable  was  the  healthiness  of  our  individual  cul 
ture — the  vigorous  digestive  power  that  enabled  the 
mind  of  this  pioneer  generation  to  stomach  and  assimi 
late  the  dull  and  didactic  in  huge  quantities,  like  their 
copious  draughts  of  medicine.  We  read  of  learned  men 
in  these  thirteen  colonies;  of  apt  classical  scholars  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  especially  among  the  clergy;  but  in 
modern  belles-lettres  the  mental  acquisition  was  not 
great,  while  the  lighter  mental  range  was  neglected. 
Life  was  serious  in  these  colonies.  Reading  and  cul 
ture  sought  immediate  utility,  the  plodding  needs  of  a 
present  existence,  or  the  pious  concerns  of  the  soul  for 
a  better  life  to  come. 


Except  for  the  rare  newspaper  or  rarer  magazine, 
the  indigenous  almanac,  so  indispensable,  and  occa 
sional  sermons  or  political  addresses  of  immediate  inter 
est  in  pamphlet  form,  most  reading  matter  for  our 
colonists  was  shipped  direct  from  London  like  other 
British  manufactures.  From  the  announcements  of 
American  booksellers  like  Henry  Knox  of  Boston — a 
militia  magnate  soon  to  become  famous  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  fight  and  still  later  as  Washington's  first  Secre 
tary  of  War — or  like  John  Mein,  his  Tory  predecessor 
in  the  trade,  who  got  hooted  out  of  town  for  his  politics, 
we  see  that  at  our  so-called  "London  bookstore"  were 
to  be  had  imported  books  in  divinity,  history,  law, 
physic  and  surgery,  with  "sea  books"  besides,  and 
school  books  and  Bibles  of  every  variety.  Ledgers, 
account  books  and  all  sorts  of  stationery  were  sold  at 
these  stores  besides. 

The  choice  books  of  1772-75,  as  listed,  were  Jona- 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  123 

than  Ed  wards' s  Sermons,  Wither  spoon  on  the  Gos 
pels,  Whitefield's  Letters,  "Domestic  Medicine  or 
the  Family  Physician,"  dissertations  on  the  gout, 
essays  on  comets,  treatises  on  the  keeping  of  bees, 
Bishop  Burnet's  History,  Pope's  "Essay  on  Man," 
Dr.  Priestley's  "Experimental  Philosophy,"  Dean 
Swift,  and  Clarendon's  "History  of  the  English  Re 
bellion."  The  patron  with  plethoric  purse  invested,  not 
in  fiction  or  humor  so  much  as  in  Duhamel's  Hus 
bandry,  Bailey's  or  Johnson's  Standard  Dictionary,  or 
the  Dictionary  of  Arts  and  Sciences;  he  chose  from 
among  the  various  handy  compends  of  the  day  in 
mathematics,  grammar,  classics  and  geography.1 

A  book  in  great  demand  among  the  women  was  "The 
Frugal  Housewife  and  Complete  Woman  Cook/'  a 
London  importation  of  1772.  Watts' s  psalms  and 
hymns  sold  largely  in  America,  as  also  did  psalters  and 
books  of  psalmody,  spelling  books  and  primers.  Peren 
nial  among  the  last — in  Eastern  households  at  least — 
was  the  famous  "New  England  Primer,"  a  native 
product,  whose  Scriptural  doggerel  upon  the  alphabet 
is  perhaps  at  this  day  the  best  remembered  poetry  of 
colonial  times. 

Our  common  folk  in  those  days  were  deeply  con 
cerned  in  religious  problems.  The  great  revival  had 
swept  the  land  not  long  before.  A  keen  zest  for  theo 
logical  disputation  and  polemic  pamphlets  prevailed, 

THow  useful  to  the  young  were  some  of  these  little  com 
pends — not  all  of  them  imported — Washington's  example  reminds 
us;  for  the  "Young  Man's  Companion,"  his  vade  mecum  of  early 
years,  not  only  taught  him  writing,  the  drafting  of  deeds  and 
the  rudiments  of  his  surveyor's  profession,  but  instilled,  be 
sides,  those  precepts  of  good  behavior  which  he  transcribed 
for  the  regulation  of  his  conduct  in  life. — P.  L.  Ford's  "True 
George  Washington." 


124  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

and  sermons  of  the  native  clergy  seem  to  have  paid  for 
the  printing,  and  were  read  as  well  as  listened  to.  The 
parade  of  some  Scriptural  text  or  Latin  quotation  upon 
its  title-page  gave  piquancy  to  the  contents  of  such  a 
production.  One  clergyman  announces  ''Sermons  upon 
doctrinal  subjects  with  practical  improvements;"  an 
other  "Sermons  to  the  unregenerated ;"  a  third  records 
"A  surprising  instance  of  Divine  Grace  in  the  con 
version  of  a  revenue  officer."  Among  pamphlets  well 
advertised  were  "Heaven  upon  Earth,"  "A  Penitential 
Crisis,"  "Considerations  Against  Visiting  on  the  Sab 
bath,"  "The  Whole  Duty  of  Women,"  "The  Religious 
Education  of  Daughters,"  "Serial  Sermons  for  the 
Days  of  the  Week,"  and  twin  discourses,  one  preached 
before  and  one  after  a  noted  execution.  Controversial 
tracts  on  theology  increased  during  the  last  years  of  our 
colonial  era.  Popery  was  freely  assailed  by  our 
Protestant  settlers  as  a  foe  who  could  not  strike  back  ; 
and  over  the  issue  of  establishing  an  English  Episco 
pacy  in  America  arose  a  more  equal  discussion.  "Pal- 
aemon's  Creed  Examined"  was  a  Boston  pamphlet  in 
1765,  which  maintained  "the  Protestant  doctrines  of 
covenant  of  works,  covenant  of  grace  and  justification." 
Over  the  book  counter  were  sold  special  expositions 
of  2.  Corinthians,  chapter  3,  and  of  "the  rational  expli 
cation  of  St.  John's  vision  of  the  two  beasts."  One 
favorite  book  of  the  day  was  "Contemplations"  on  four 
subjects — the  ocean,  the  harvest,  sickness  and  the  last 
judgment.  "Death  Realized"  was  the  caption  of  a 
native  poem  in  the  form  of  a  dying  soliloquy,  inspired, 
perhaps,  by  the  ambitious  verses  of  Pope. 


This  was  an  age  when  literature,  here  as  in  the 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  125 

mother  country,  partook  considerably  of  the  pompous 
and  artificial  in  expression,  like  life  and  manners  in 
good  society.  "English  poetry,"  it  has  been  said,  "lost 
her  eyes  when  Milton  lost  his;"  nor  had  even  the  gentle 
Goldsmith,  who  preached  rustic  simplicity  and  the 
homely  virtues,  restored  our  Muse's  vision.  Pope,  with 
his  splendid  diction,  and  a  host  of  impecunious  imi 
tators,  read  Nature  in  her  external  aspects,  as  though 
from  some  back  window  in  London's  crowded  dwell 
ings.  They  guessed  at  landscape  as  garreteers  who  saw 
not.  For  prose  dissertation,  the  learned  Dr.  Johnson 
had  lately  superadded  ornament  to  the  graces  of  Addi- 
son;  so  that  the  balancing  of  phrases  and  the  search 
for  the  stately  and  sonorous  harmed  correspondingly 
the  essence  of  sincere  expression.  With  the  growth 
of  Oriental  commerce  had  come,  too,  into  passing  literary 
vogue  the  pseudo-Eastern  allegory,  in  which  our  con 
crete  English  mind  indulged  in  fanciful  speculation,  as 
Cassim,  Ahmed,  Mirza  or  Abbas  Carascan — a  familiar 
personage,  ill  disguised  with  turban,  robe  and  light 
slippers.  The  age  of  morbid  or  romantic  fiction,  of 
voracious  novel  reading,  was  for  America  still  remote, 
though  sentimental  studies  of  British  social  life  and 
manners  were  not  wanting.  A  popular  book  among 
those  imported  in  the  era  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  "The 
Vicar  of  Wakefield" — "supposed/*  as  the  bookseller  ex 
plained  it,  "to  have  been  written  by  himself;"  and  be 
sides  Goldsmith's  immortal  tale,  our  people  read  to 
some  extent  Richardson's  "Clarissa  Harlowe"  or  "Sir 
Charles  Grandison,"  and  with  reservation  the  more 
humorous  but  coarser  novels  of  Fielding  and  Smollett. 
Serious  and  sentimental  stories  were  preferred  at  all 
events  in  our  colonies  to  those  of  irreverent  and  immoral 
strain,  and  Milton,  with  his  sublimity  of  religious  inspi- 


126  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ration,  was  a  poet  more  acceptable  to  our  colonists  than 
Shakespeare,  the  player. 

Moralists,  like  the  poets  and  writers  of  fiction,  seem 
hardly  to  have  been  separable  from  their  creeds  in  re 
ligion  or  politics;  and  hence,  while  Burke  was  justly 
admired  as  the  friend  of  America,  Johnson  repelled  us 
by  his  dogmatic  Toryism  and  his  faithful  devotion  to 
the  Church  of  England.  Among  solid  historians, 
Josephus,  Rollin,  Robertson  and  Hume  found  Ameri 
can  readers.  The  works  of  all  such  writers  were  on 
sale  at  colonial  bookstores. 


Native  literature  could  not  have  flourished  thus  early 
under  a  colonial  and  dependent  establishment.  Yet  the 
American  mind,  whithersoever  its  energies  had  been 
directed,  was  found  ingenious,  logical  and  acute.  In 
personal  religion,  theology,  interpretation  of  the  Bible, 
the  probable  conditions  of  a  future  life,  were  grand 
themes  of  cogitation  for  our  ancestors  while  politics 
were  dull ;  and  among  native  preachers  who  were  shep 
herds  of  the  people  in  those  times,  Jonathan  Edwards, 
whose  eyes  closed  on  the  world  while  Wolfe  was  con 
tending  for  Canada,  stands  unrivalled.  Defender  of  the 
doctrine  of  original  sin,  profound  in  fathoming  the  de 
pravity  of  the  human  heart,  to  him  the  horrors  of  hell 
were  as  real  as  the  joys  of  heaven,  and  sinners  trembled 
at  his  utterances.  Other  New  England  clergymen 
there  were,  like  the  Mathers,  who  had  earlier  worked 
Biblical  theology  into  schemes  of  temporal  government ; 
who,  while  the  mother  country  was  preoccupied  in  civil 
war,  devised  the  Mosaic  dispensation  of  a  common 
wealth  of  God's  own  elect — Jewish  as  to  the  outside 
unconverted,  but  with  remarkable  assertion  of  indi- 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  127 

vidual  liberty  and  equal  rights  among  the  predesti 
nated. 


And  now  came  civil  oppression  by  the  parent  gov 
ernment  ;  and  resistance,  revolution  and  political  destiny 
became  in  men's  minds  the  paramount  theme  of  dis 
cussion  and  meditation.  The  truths  which  underlie  all 
human  government  were  now  explored — doctrines  of 
civil  liberty  as  against  the  divine  right  of  kings,  the 
individual  as  safeguarded  from  his  rulers,  man's  in 
herent  right  of  expatriation,  and  the  possible  adaptation 
of  institutions  by  new  dwellers  upon  a  new  soil  for  their 
own  welfare  as  against  perpetual  allegiance  to  Europe 
by  the  accident  of  human  birth.  What  abler  defence 
of  the  people's  cause  as  opposed  to  blind  monarchy  than 
those  addresses  of  Boston  and  the  Massachusetts  Gen 
eral  Court  which  Samuel  Adams  chiefly  drafted? 
What  nobler  or  more  forcible  eloquence,  by  patriot 
orators  who  differed  in  style  and  manner,  than  that  of 
James  Otis,  John  Adams  and  Patrick  Henry,  each  of 
whom  stirred  deeply  his  special  audience?  What  better 
or  more  convincing  masters  of  the  pen  for  lucid  ex 
pression  of  a  coming  establishment  for  this  continent 
than  the  sagacious  Franklin,  earliest  among  Americans 
born  to  stand  before  kings  and  to  impress  Europe  by  his 
writings  and  personal  efforts  in  science,  diplomacy  and 
constructive  politics?  Or  than  Jefferson,  the  idealist, 
who  addressed  his  sovereign  as  one  fellow-mortal  does 
another,  and  whose  statement  in  the  Declaration,  of 
truths  self-evident,  has  brought  this  Union  back  to  first 
principles  at  more  than  one  crisis  of  national  peril  ?  Of 
him,  with  that  admirable  measure  of  enthusiasm  which 
moves  without  leading  astray,  wrote  James  Russell 


128  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Lowell  in  1858*:  "Jefferson  was  the  first  American 
man ;  and  I  doubt  if  we  have  produced  a  better  thinker 
or  writer." 

But  of  aesthetic  interpretation  or  of  tranquil  literary 
themes  in  song  or  story,  America  had  little  indeed  to 
boast  thus  early.  And  when  men  rushed  to  mortal 
strife  in  battle,  there  could  be  little  scope  for  poetry, 
unless  lyrical  in  strain;  nor  of  that  was  there  much 
worth  preserving.  Native  literati,  such  as  had  thus 
far  deserved  that  title  at  all,  were  but  imitators  of  their 
British  contemporaries  for  the  most  part.  Yet,  as  the 
late  Professor  Tyler  has  recorded,  a  large  mass  of 
native  literature  of  one  sort  or  another  was  produced 
here  during  the  twenty  eventful  years  which  preceded 
the  peace  of  1783.2  Much  of  it  was  trite  and  common 
place,  most  of  it  was  argumentative  or  dealt  with  simple 
facts.  There  were  travels  into  the  wilderness,  studies 
of  the  Indians,  ponderous  local  histories  of  the  colonies, 
among  which  Thomas  Hutchinson's  "History  of  Mas 
sachusetts,"  in  two  volumes,  deserves,  perhaps,  the  pre 
eminence — handicapped  in  fame  though  the  author 
found  himself  by  loyalty  to  the  King.  Even  in  aesthetic 
literature  Yale  and  Princeton  were  fountains  of  inspira 
tion.  Princeton's  bard  was  Philip  Freneau,  whose  mis 
fortune  it  became  in  later  life  to  offend  Washington,  as 
a  political  press  writer.  John  Trumbull  and  Timothy 
Dwight  were  the  earliest  bards  of  the  Yale  set.  Trum 
bull,  Dwight  and  Freneau  were  all  American  born,  and 
the  two  former  were  of  Protestant  ancestry.  Trum- 
bull's  distinction  was  that  of  political  satirist;  and  his 
"McFingal,"  immensely  popular  at  the  outbreak  of  our 
Revolution,  was  full  freighted  with  the  logic  and  humor 

"Scudder's  Lowell,  218. 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  129 

of  this  great  uprising  of  the  king's  subjects.  Of  Fre- 
neau  it  should  be  said  that  if  rebellious  America  had 
truly  a  lyrical  interpreter,  it  was  he.  Though  most  of 
the  poetry  of  our  Revolution  was  too  roughly  wrought 
for  permanency,  Freneau's  bears  at  times  the  stamp  of 
real  genius.  Scott  commended  him  to  a  later  genera 
tion  of  Britons;  while  both  Scott  and  Campbell  bor 
rowed  images  from  his  verse  for  their  own  more  famous 
poems. 

Among  contemporary  letter-writers  and  pamphlet 
eers  of  this  period  indigenous  to  our  soil,  Washington 
and  John  Dickinson  deserve  mention;  so,  too,  does 
Francis  Hopkinson,  a  nimble  poet  and  wit  of  the  middle 
section,  and  a  signer,  withal,  of  our  Declaration.  Of 
aliens  born,  Hamilton  impressed  himself  upon  New 
York  when  Revolution  opened.  But  the  most  famous 
pamphleteer  of  the  times  was  Thomas  Paine,  who 
arrived  from  England  in  1774;  and  his  "Common 
Sense,"  which,  more  than  any  other  appeal  to  public 
opinion  through  the  press,  brought  these  colonies  to 
decide  for  independence,  won  conviction  by  sheer  force 
of  words  and  argument,  for  his  tract  was  published 
anonymously. 

To  go  back,  however,  to  more  general  symptoms 
of  the  age  we  are  considering,  American  literature, 
while  colonial  conditions  lasted,  imitated  with  sub 
servience  the  style  then  prevalent  in  the  mother  coun 
try,  which  was  sentimental  and  stilted.  Elegance  of 
phrase  was  affected  for  trivial  thoughts,  jewels  not 
worth  the  setting;  fine  description,  fine  writing, 
was  all  the  fashion.  The  pose  and  affectation  of  virtue, 
sentimental  and  vapid  reflections,  supposed  to  be  sug 
gested  by  scenes  of  nature  viewed  commonly  at  second- 


130  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

hand — these  characterized  the  literary  effusions  of 
London  magazines,  which  our  colonial  printer  trans 
ferred  to  his  own  columns  to  fill  up  vacant  space  and 
render  homage  to  culture.  Hence,  in  the  years  just 
preceding  the  wrath  of  solemn  conflict,  we  see  printed  a 
variety  of  fugitive  effusions,  some  originating  abroad, 
others  indigenous.  Many  of  our  votaries  affected  the 
lounger's  dawdling  essay  to  be  gallant  or  satirical.  One 
sends  airily  to  the  editor  some  ambling  verse,  with 
Horatian  couplets  for  a  text — "the  result,"  he  styles  it, 
"of  an  idle  hour."  Another,  as  "Theodosius"  or  "Cory- 
don,"  dedicates  an  amorous  sonnet  full  of  compliment 
to  some  fair  lady  whose  name  is  veiled  in  the  vowels 
and  yet  discerned  through  the  consonants.  A  fireside 
ode  is  addressed  to  "Dear  Chloe."  One  fair  poetaster 
composed  verses  which  began  "Genteel  is  my  Damon ;" 
and  a  provincial  newspaper,  printing  them  in  1765  as 
the  production  of  "a  great  lady,"  assured  its  readers 
that  the  poem  "not  only  convinces  of  her  extraordinary 
language,  but  also  the  greatness  of  her  natural  genius." 
Contributions  of  this  cast,  I  imagine,  were  chiefly 
of  the  sect  which  adhered  to  King  George  after  the 
struggle  began  and  disappeared  from  America  with  the 
Loyalists.  More  earnest  and  passionate  was  the  strain, 
though  rude  and  robustious,  of  our  Revolutionary  versi 
fiers.  One  poem  of  1775  described  the  military  aspect 
after  Bunker  Hill.  An  Old- World  ruin,  whose  un 
happy  picture  was  once  familiar  in  American  houses, 
supplied  the  parallel : 

"Palmyra's   prospect  with  her  tumbling  walls. 
***** 

Yet    far    more    dismal    to   the   patriot's    eye 
The  drear  remains  of  Charlestown's   former   show, 
Behind  whose  wall  did  hundred  warriors  die, 
And  Britain's  centre  felt  the  fatal  blow," 


COLONIAL    LITERATURE  131 

Our  patriot  press  of  those  years  printed  various  fugi 
tive  poems  in  which  passionate  feeling  for  human 
rights  struggles  for  adequate  expression ;  not  to  add  the 
mechanism  of  acrostics  on  the  names  of  George  Wash 
ington,  John  Hancock  and  other  favorite  sons  of 
liberty.1 

Before  the  surge  of  political  passion  began  thus  with 
the  Stamp  Act,  the  theme  for  poetry  which  most  stirred 
men's  hearts  here  was  religion,  or,  one  might  say,  the 
moral  and  didactic.  Among  the  imported  books  offered 
to  the  public  in  1765  was  "The  Messiah,"  a  poem  whose 
author  was  held  in  esteem  as  "the  Milton  of  Germany." 
And  again  we  find  "Providence,"  an  allegorical  epic 
in  three  books,  by  a  clergyman,  Mr.  Ogilvie.  "All  the 
proofs  of  revealed  religion  are  here  epitomized,"  says 
the  advertiser;  "scenes  of  misery  and  distress  incident 
to  human  life,  drawn  by  the  pen  of  so  feeling  a  writer 
and  heightened  by  the  color  of  genius,  will  wring  the 
throbbing  breast  with  pangs  of  commiseration,  will 
awaken  all  the  finer  movements  of  the  soul,  and  improve 
the  reader  in  the  virtues  of  humanity." 

Of  corresponding  merit  were  those  scattering  prose 
productions  which  only  the  press  of  our  colonial  era 
preserves  from  oblivion.  Besides  effusive  sentiments 
such  as  I  have  described,  literary  taste  indulged  in  ele 
gant  rhapsodies  over  the  phenomena  of  nature — a 
storm,  a  whirlwind,  a  waterfall,  the  reflection  of  the 
moon  upon  the  tranquil  lake,  and  so  on.  The  vapid 
essayist  was  of  the  same  mould  as  the  vapid  poet 

*As  the  British  captors  of  our  cities  would  get  up  dramas 
which  ridiculed  the  American  cause,  so,  in  1776,  soon  after  the 
siege  of  Boston  was  raised,  a  patriot  play  described  the  various 
scenes  that  the  town  had  witnessed ;  "alternately  diverting,  shock 
ing  or  affecting."  This  was  a  tragi-comedy  in  five  acts  entitled 
"The  Fall  of  British  Tyranny,  or  American  Liberty  Triumphant." 


132  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

of  those  days,  appealing  to  the  happy  few  of 
culture  and  leisure.  Lucy,  Lycidas,  Philomath,  were 
among  the  favorite  pseudonyms  of  this  fraternity. 
They  touched  upon  gallantry,  the  education  of  women, 
and  fashion's  foibles;  they  described  visits  to  Virginia's 
natural  bridge,  Niagara  being  scarcely  yet  accessible; 
they  praised  patronizingly  the  efforts  of  mechanics  to 
found  a  debating  society ;  they  criticised  fastidiously  the 
use  of  certain  words  or  phrases  in  popular  composition. 
One  produced  a  brace  of  sentimental  essays — "City 
Night  Reflections"  and  "Country  Night  Reflections." 
"How  sweet  it  is  to  be  virtuous"  was  the  theme  of  a 
pastoral  paper  of  this  sort  in  one  of  the  magazines.  I 
speak  of  times  ten  years  before  the  fight  at  Lexington.1 


This  we  should  remember :  that  Americans  in  those 
years  had  little  capital,  owned  or  borrowed,  to  bestow 
upon  literary  ventures  such  as  sought  remuneration. 
Hence,  open  proposals  were  made  and  subscriptions 
taken  in  advance  as  a  prerequisite  to  almost  any  native 
publication  which  involved  pecuniary  risk  or  outlay. 
Even  in  London,  during  that  early  period,  the  book 
trade  pursued  such  a  course  to  a  considerable  extent. 
Literature  fawned  upon  the  rich  and  powerful,  as  its 
needs  compelled  it  to  do,  and  sought  out  patrons.  In 
colonies  whose  inhabitants  most  inclined  to  reading  and 
culture,  booksellers  would  tempt  the  public  with  their 
proposals  through  the  press  for  mere  printing  or  re 
printing;  and  thus  was  it  with  acceptable  books  of  all 

*A  panegyric  appeared  in  the  press  to  the  memory  of  a  highly 
respected  professor  at  Harvard  College ;  "it  evinces  in  the 
writer,"  remarks  the  printer  admiringly,  "a  promising  genius, 
laudable  requirements  in  literature  and  the  respect  he  had  for 
the  deceased." 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  133 

kinds  from  Josephus  down  to  the  latest  controversial 
tract  upon  civil  or  religious  liberty.  A  clergyman 
sought  subscribers  for  his  own  occasional  discourses. 
Publishers  tickled  artfully  the  vanity  of  desired 
patrons.1  In  1776 — that  year  when  men's  minds  were 
set  rather  upon  earthly  conquest — proposals  issued  for 
young  Timothy  Dwight's  "Conquest  of  Canaan,"  a 
native  epic,  to  comprise  nine  books  and  350  printed 
pages.  Subscription  agents  were  announced  to  solicit 
names  in  all  the  leading  towns  of  New  England  and  the 
Middle  States,  and  all  who  subscribed  for  twelve  copies 
would  receive  a  thirteenth  gratis. 

If  the  poet,  the  preacher  or  the  controversialist 
sought  thus  the  wherewithal  for  bringing  his  produc 
tion  to  the  light,  readers,  on  their  part,  expected  to  pay 
for  literary  wares  of  every  description.  In  politics  as  in 
religion,  men  bought  the  tracts  that  might  enlighten 
them,  and  the  pamphlet,  sold  broadcast,  did  more  in 
those  days  to  direct  and  mould  men's  thoughts  than 
even  the  newspaper.  Thus,  of  Paine's  "Common 
Sense" — that  famous  tract  to  which  I  have  alluded — ' 
not  less  than  120,000  copies  were  sold  among  the  people 
within  three  months  from  the  date  of  its  issue.  For 
political  funds  were  not  used  in  those  days  for  sending 
out  free  documents  to  constituents;  campaign  com 
mittees  had  not  the  public  printer  at  their  behest;  nor 
did  colleges,  learned  societies  or  even  the  bureaus  of 
government  dump  their  loads  of  printed  erudition  upon 
the  public,  that  men  might  read  and  be  influenced. 
That  golden  age  when  calendars,  picture  cards,  time 

*In  1772,  at  Philadelphia,  the  miscellaneous  poems  of  a  deceased 
missionary  were  to  be  gathered  into  a  volume,  beautifully  printed 
on  fine  American  paper  from  elegant  type;  the  names  of  all 
advance  subscribers  to  appear  in  type  among  the  contents,  while 
later  purchasers  would  be  added  to  the  list  in  a  second  edition. 


134  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

tables  and  blotting  pads  might  be  had  gratis  from  the 
managers  of  a  business  enterprise  was  still  far  in  the 
future. 


While  emulous  bards  and  prose  writers,  Americans 
by  birth  and  breeding,  appealed  with  meagre  result  to 
the  pride  of  a  native  literature,  the  ''infant  manu 
facture,"  as  our  publishers  styled  it,  of  cheaply  reprint 
ing  standard  English  books  of  one  kind  or  another  was 
better  appreciated.  The  public  liked  good  reading 
matter,  good  standard  works,  when  obtainable  at  a  re 
duced  cost,  even  though  type  and  paper  were  poorer. 
Press  proposals  appeared  in  1770  for  "the  first  English 
Bible  ever  printed  in  America" — a  long  two-column 
announcement,  phenomenal  for  those  days  of  economy 
in  advertising.  And  from  the  Stamp- Act  year  onward, 
the  public  disposition  to  foster  home  industries  rather 
than  pay  tribute  to  the  mother  country  was  a  patriotic 
symptom  to  which  book  publishers,  like  others  who 
made  or  sold  in  these  colonies,  catered  for  profit.  And 
since  lawyers  in  every  age  are  the  most  liberal  patrons 
of  literature  among  men  of  moderate  means — good  read 
ers  and  good  political  leaders  alike — it  would  seem  that 
the  culmination  of  our  colonial  zeal  in  publishing  was 
reached  about  1773,  by  a  reprint  of  the  most  famous 
of  English  law  text-books.  "Blackstone's  splendid 
Commentaries,"  as  the  advertiser  termed  it,  came  out 
in  an  American  edition,  the  prime  venture  of  a  daring 
Philadelphia  publisher,  backed  by  brethren  of  the  craft 
in  Boston  and  elsewhere.  The  British  edition,  which 
comprised  four  volumes,  cost  four  dollars  a  volume; 
but  for  half  that  price,  with  a  fifth  volume  added  by 
way  of  index,  for  two  dollars,  our  votary  of  the  pro- 


COLONIAL    LITERATURE  135 

fession  might  stock  his  shelves  to  good  purpose  and  at 
the  same  time  save  money.  "Sons  of  science  in 
America" — for  science  in  those  days  meant  rarely  the 
study  of  physical  nature — were  eloquently  invoked  to 
sustain  this  republication,  whose  promoter  styled  him 
self  in  his  prospectus  as  "an  humble  provider  to  the 
sentimentalist  and  handservant  to  the  friends  of  liter 
ature."  "Those,"  he  glowingly  added,  "who  buy  and 
thus  economize  will  greatly  contribute  toward  the  ele 
vation  and  enlivening  of  literary  manufactures  in 
America." 

Thus,  with  England's  great  commentator — peerless 
still  among  sound  expounders  in  the  language  who  have 
striven  to  make  our  common  law  readable,  but  whom 
Jefferson  disliked  with  all  his  honeyed  phrasing,  as  an 
apologist  of  monarchy  and  the  whole  status  quo  of 
British  institutions;  unlike  the  sturdy  Coke,  whom  he 
superseded — America  may  be  said  to  have  started,  just 
before  the  Revolution,  upon  that  high  career  of  cheap 
and  instructive  reprinting  and  reproduction  which 
under  later  conditions  of  an  independent  national  sov 
ereignty  has  had  immense  influence  upon  the  literary 
education  of  our  common  people  and  the  diffusion  of 
popular  knowledge,  though  doubtless  in  disregard  of 
the  just  rights  of  authors. 


Not  to  speak  yet  of  the  magazines  and  newspapers 
of  our  colonial  period,  I  may  add  that  in  this  era,  and, 
indeed,  far  beyond  our  Revolutionary  age  into  the  nine 
teenth  century,  literary  aspirants  found  place  for  their 
fugitive  efforts  in  the  published  annuals  of  the  times. 
Those  morocco-bound  volumes  of  contemporary  taste 
and  elegance  which  in  succession  long  adorned,  as  gift 


136  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

books  from  friends,  the  shrine  of  the  darkened  parlor, 
as  some  of  us  still  remember — the  "Token,"  the  "Ama 
ranth"  or  the  "Wreath"  of  a  designated  year — brought 
out  in  print  for  the  first  time  the  verse,  the  sketch  or 
short  story  of  many  a  native  author  whose  fame  sur 
vives  his  early  poverty.  The  varied  literary  contents 
of  such  annuals  were  enhanced  in  attractiveness  by  all 
the  pretentious  embellishment  of  steel  engraving,  typog 
raphy,  presswork  and  fine  binding  that  progress  in  the 
art  of  bookmaking  could  then  permit.  Perhaps,  how 
ever,  at  the  date  of  our  Revolution,  that  art,  like  Ameri 
can  literature  itself,  was  more  truly  embodied  in  the 
plain  and  worldly-wise  almanac,  sage  and  homely  of 
aspect,  whose  circulation  was  very  great  among  our 
people  as  compared  with  most  other  books. 

As  humble  purveyor  to  the  prevalent  taste  and 
culture,  the  useful  service  performed  among  the  people 
by  America's  old-fashioned  almanac  should  not  be 
ignored  or  forgotten.  What  trustier  vehicle  for  carry 
ing  to  the  home  and  fireside  choice  thoughts,  choice 
maxims,  sententious  information,  alike  in  household 
management  and  the  higher  philosophy  of  life?  Even 
at  our  own  clay  the  almanac  method  of  instilling  ideas 
is  employed,  not  for  trade's  reiteration  alone,  but  so  as 
to  inculcate  choice  precepts  from  the  world's  best 
writers  and  thinkers  in  prose  and  poetry  and  from  texts 
of  Holy  Writ.  Since  the  art  of  printing  was  invented, 
no  compend  can  have  been  more  universal  in  circulation 
and  use  for  recurring  reference  among  grown-up  folk 
who  could  read  at  all  than  the  calendar — that  annual 
chronicle  of  days  and  months  set  to  appropriate  figures, 
whereby  we  know  at  a  glance  the  tides,  the  changes  of 
sun  and  moon,  the  approach  of  birthdays  and  anni 
versaries,  sacred  or  secular,  which  concern  us,  that  one 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  137 

may  arrange  his  programme  of  personal  life  intelli 
gently.  If  civilized  man  at  the  present  day  needs  a 
watch  or  clock  to  regulate  his  daily  routine,  not  less 
does  he  find  some  calendar  indispensable  for  ready 
reference,  to  post  himself  upon  the  relation  that  one  day 
bears  to  another,  and  adjust  for  the  coming  weeks  and 
months  his  broader  arrangements. 


But  the  popular  almanac  of  our  Revolutionary  age 
and  earlier  printers  was  not  like  that  of  to-day,  though 
quite  as  useful  and  popular  in  its  generation,  and  far 
better  adapted  to  lodging  sound  precepts  in  the  mind. 
The  ample  card  calendar,  with  figures  arranged  by 
squares,  which  shows  the  whole  chart  of  the  new  year 
at  a  glance,  and  hangs  before  us  in  the  living  room  at 
home,  in  the  office,  the  workshop  or  the  counting- 
house — donated  by  some  advertiser  who  wishes  his 
name  kept  constantly  in  sight,  or  purchased  in  the  store 
at  a  nominal  cost — this  seems  not  to  have  been  specially 
in  vogue  in  colonial  or  Revolutionary  times;  but  the 
almanac  came  out  rather  as  a  pamphlet  or  bound  book — 
each  month  with  its  own  page — and  the  farmer,  the 
merchant,  the  mechanic — men  and  \vomen  generally  at 
their  homes — consulted  the  silent  sybil  by  turning  the 
monthly  leaves  in  succession  from  January  to  Decem 
ber;  and  they  used  blank  pages  for  a  diary. 

How  easy,  how  natural,  then,  for  so  familiar  a  guide 
to  embody  sagacious  hints  for  the  house  or  farm  along 
with  his  dry  chronicle ;  to  make  vague  forecasts  of  the 
weather  for  special  weeks  and  seasons;  or,  if  more 
strenuous  still  in  pleasing  and  improving  the  reader, 
to  speak  with  sententious  wisdom  of  the  higher  things 
of  life;  or  in  his  lighter  moods  to  make  jests,  tell  anec- 


138  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

dotes  or  drop  into  verse,  and  make  himself  entertain 
ing.  Franklin,  as  the  world  knows,  gained  literary 
renown  with  the  pen  for  himself  and  his  fellow- 
countrymen  as  an  almanac-maker,  and  his  success  here 
was  a  solid  one  in  pounds,  shillings  and  pence,  and  not 
in  fame  alone.  "Poor  Richard"  was  the  earliest  charac 
ter  in  the  fiction  of  this  New  World  to  really  attract 
the  attention  of  the  Old.  While  Shakespeare  before 
him,  and  Scott  much  later,  peopled  the  realm  of  liter 
ature  with  new  creations  of  the  brain,  it  was  our  colonial 
Benjamin  who  first  made  of  the  imaginary  sage  of  the 
calendar  a  living  personage,  as  it  seemed,  in  flesh  and 
blood;  and  those  pithy  and  admirable  sayings  which 
taught  our  colonists  thrift,  economy  and  the  curbing  of 
their  baser  appetites  are  still  the  seed-corn  of  homily 
and  dissertation  wherever  the  English  tongue  is  spoken. 
Not,  to  be  sure,  the  only  personified  chronicler  of  his 
times,  he  was  beyond  comparison  the  best  and  the  broad 
est  of  them  all  in  philanthropy  and  sound  philosophy, 
for  his  almanac  man  was  himself.  The  success  of  his 
"Poor  Richard"  bred  many  an  imitator  in  the  years  just 
preceding  our  Revolution.1 

One  surely  observes,  when  exploring  the  remnants  of 
that  age,  an  increasing  literary  character  in  the  almanac, 
but  with  literary  assumption  no  greater  than  the  con 
stituency  of  those  times  could  bear.  Of  all  the  literary 
output  of  the  press  in  any  age,  few  works,  after  all, 
prove  less  ephemeral  than  those  which  delight  or  amuse 
the  public  for  a  whole  calendar  year.  But  as  readers 
turn  naturally  to  the  almanac  for  casual  purpose,  and 

Nathaniel  Ames  was  before  Franklin  in  the  field  as  an 
almanac-maker  who  set  forth  wit  and  wisdom.  Franklin  origi 
nated  neither  the  newspaper  nor  the  readable  almanac,  but  he 
improved  upon  former  methods. 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE          139 

chiefly  to  ascertain  or  verify  a  simple  fact,  the  man  of 
genius  who  would  fascinate  and  detain  like  the  ancient 
mariner  must  take  his  chance  among  the  vulgar  and 
commonplace  in  such  a  world;  he  has  not  that  genteel 
introduction  to  culture  and  good  society  which  in  later 
years  the  choice  annuals  conferred,  to  which  I  have 
alluded.  Of  American  almanacs  in  colonial  years,  lay 
ing  more  or  less  claim  to  literary  merit,  there  was  a  fair 
variety;  for  besides  "Poor  Richard's"  might  be  found 
"Poor  Will's"  or  "Father  Abraham's;"  while  the 
Boston  Almanac  had  already  a  good  footing  among 
rivals  which  it  long  survived.  Annuals  like  these 
asserted  their  claims  as  literary  vehicles,  whose  jog  was 
midway  between  the  shifting  newspaper  or  magazine 
and  those  books,  more  expectant  of  fame,  which  keep 
up  the  procession  indefinitely.  To  increase  their  circu 
lation,  country  traders  and  shopkeepers  bought  large 
quantities,  receiving  a  liberal  discount;  so  that  the  job 
bing  of  popular  books  in  a  department  store,  which 
to-day  makes  such  trouble  for  our  retail  booksellers, 
began  before  the  Revolution,  and  with  the  rural  general 
store. 

Of  the  choice  and  varied  contents  of  these  colonial 
chronicles  we  gather  some  conception  by  sampling  the 
literary  contents  of  those  once  popular  publications  as 
advertised  in  the  colonial  press.  The  Boston  Almanac 
for  1772,  besides  its  calendar  record  and  "judgment  of 
the  weather,"  set  forth  stage  distances  of  the  chief 
towns  on  this  continent,  the  civil  list  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  province,  and  the  dates  when  the  several  courts 
held  their  sessions.  Assuming,  moreover,  the  easy 
function  of  household  adviser,  it  set  forth  the  correct 
treatment  of  gout,  bruises  and  bunions,  and  showed 
how  to  build  chimneys  that  would  not  smoke,  and  how 


140  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

to  dress  the  soil  in  order  to  get  good  crops.  Among 
the  anecdotes,  veracious  or  otherwise,  listed  in  its  table 
of  contents,  was  an  account  of  Mahomet's  extraordi 
nary  journey  to  heaven,  and  the  tale  of  a  bloody  fight 
between  a  sailor  and  a  large  shark.  For  poetry  or  ex 
hortation,  it  contained  an  ode  to  washing  day,  an 
epigram  upon  an  old  maid,  and  a  warning  to  immoder 
ate  drinkers.  A  rival  almanac  of  that  year  advertised 
an  original  epigram  on  the  miseries  of  Job,  the  verse 
dialogue  of  a  young  spendthrift  and  an  old  miser,  and 
an  ode  commemorating  a  lady  whose  death  had  been 
hastened  by  her  anxiety  over  a  lawsuit  which  involved 
the  whole  of  her  husband's  fortune.  Still  another 
almanac  in  New  England  vaunted  in  1773  among  its 
miscellaneous  contents  "Timoclia,  or  the  Power  of 
Virtue,"  an  heroic  tale  for  ladies;  and  for  poetry  "an 
excellent  new  song"  entitled  "Bo-Peep." 

Many  were  the  sailor  yarns  in  such  publications 
wherein  figured  the  shark  or  the  mermaid.  In  Philadel 
phia  "Poor  Will's  Almanac"  of  1769  set  off  its  more  pro 
saic  information  by  a  short  tale,  "The  Way  of  Happiness, 
or  the  Affecting  Story  of  Constantine  and  Lysander." 
This  ambitious  annual  for  1773  stole  a  march  upon  its 
more  famous  competitor  for  public  favor  by  coming 
out  as  early  as  September  30,  1772,  "Poor  Richard"  fol 
lowing  in  October.  And  besides  the  usual  chronicle 
of  dates,  the  calculation  of  eclipses  and  tides,  and  other 
scientific  matter,  "Poor  Will"  brought  together  "vari 
ous  useful  and  entertaining  essays" — such  as  a  pre 
scription  for  using  asses'  milk  to  cure  consumption,  a 
poem  on  the  universe,  together  with  receipts  for  making 
quince  wine,  and  for  the  cure  of  worms  in  sheep,  or  of 
the  swollen  head  in  young  turkeys.  For  nothing  was 
too  trivial  to  be  set  down  in  the  printed  menu  of  our 


COLONIAL   LITERATURE  141 

annuals.  Another  and  later  almanac  preached  to  its 
readers  a  lay  sermon  from  the  text,  "If  thy  right  eye 
offend  thee,  pluck  it  out."  "Father  Abraham's 
Almanac"  for  1770  mingled  essays  on  toleration,  preju 
dice  and  affection  among  recipes  for  raising  turkeys 
and  curing  horses  of  the  spavin.  In  short,  the  incon 
gruous  contents  of  these  almanacs,  designed  for  the 
appetite  of  the  general,  was  recognized  by  both  seller 
and  buyer  with  the  utmost  frankness. 

When  the  call  to  arms  rang  through  these  colonies, 
our  almanac  publishers,  with  the  rest,  showed  the  mettle 
of  Whig  politics.  Portraits  of  John  Hancock,  George 
Washington  and  other  patriot  leaders,  original  in  the 
block  or  adapted,  would  appear  in  the  annual  issues, 
with  appropriate  lyrics  or  acrostics.  One  New  England 
almanac  for  1777  printed  the  prayer  of  Oliver  Crom 
well  among  its  contents ;  nor  was  this  thought  stirring 
enough  to  suit  the  age  without  a  reprint  of  "the  cele 
brated  speech  of  Galgacus  to  the  North  Britons,"  ex 
horting  his  army  to  fight  for  their  liberties.  "This 
speech  alone,"  argues  the  bookseller  in  a  local  press,1 
"breathes  such  a  spirit  of  heroism  and  liberty  that  it 
ought  to  be  read  by  every  friend  of  his  country,  and  is 
alone  worth  treble  the  price  of  the  almanac." 

*I.  C. 


XI 

THE   COLONIAL  PRESS 

BEFORE  considering  what  we  call  newspapers, 
or  the  journalism  proper,  of  our  Revolutionary 
era,  let  us  touch  briefly  upon  the  subject  of 
magazines  or  periodicals  of  that  date.  I  have  already 
considered  colonial  literature  in  its  general  aspects,  and 
one  may  readily  infer  that  in  any  aesthetic  sense  the 
magazine  product  of  our  native  press  at  that  era  was 
of  very  little  worth.  There  were,  to  speak  candidly, 
neither  literary  writers  of  merit  and  culture,  on  the  one 
hand,  nor  patrons  of  means  and  leisure,  on  the  other, 
to  foster  that  sort  of  enterprise.  The  burden  of  print 
ing  must  have  been  heavy  enough  for  a  publisher,  with 
out  adding  that  of  paying  for  the  contributions  sent  in 
to  him.  In  fact,  the  popular  magazine  of  the  present 
day,  affording  its  wide  variety  of  contents  for  readers 
of  various  taste,  with  sketch,  short  story,  discourse, 
poem,  and  continuous  novel  thrown  in  together ;  whose 
editors  are  accustomed  to  pay  generously  for  writers 
well  known  to  fame,  and  whose  publishers  seek,  by  the 
costly  embellishment  of  art  and  a  rich  array  of  appe 
tizing  contributions  on  one  theme  or  another  of  im 
mediate  interest,  to  attract  a  suitable  constituency  of 
subscribers  at  a  suitable  scale  of  prices — all  this  de 
veloped  only  after  the  nineteenth  century  had  well 
advanced  and  lavish  outlay  replaced  a  niggardly  parsi 
mony  and  economy. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  143 

Nor  do  purchasers  and  subscribers  alone  in  our  day 
reimburse  the  immense  cost  to  which  conductors  of 
periodicals  are  put  in  the  inflated  and  extravagant  years 
which  open  up  this  twentieth  century;  for  advertising 
patronage  and  the  co-operation  of  those  who  make 
newspapers  and  magazines  alike  subservient  to  build 
ing  up  their  own  business  fortunes  figure  largely  in  the 
income  estimates  of  a  magazine  of  the  present  age. 
Advertising  was  meagre  enough  by  comparison  a  cen 
tury  or  more  ago,  and  the  newspaper  proper  absorbed 
all  there  was  of  it.  To  any  publication,  indeed,  that 
pretended  to  dignity  and  literary  taste,  such  means  of 
livelihood  were  abhorrent. 

Magazines  and  newspapers  were  clearly  distinguish 
able  in  those  earlier  times;  but  they  grow  more  and 
more  to  resemble  each  other.  For  if  some  newspapers 
are  issued  weekly,  so,  too,  are  some  magazines.  Each 
sort  of  publication  tends  to  absorb  into  its  pages  the 
literary  output  of  the  age  by  subsidizing  popular 
writers  and  seeking  to  monopolize,  as  to  readers,  the 
whole  time  which  our  average  man  can  fairly  bestow. 
This  was  not  so  in  colonial  times.  Yet  culture  was 
even  then  recognized  as  a  duty  by  the  fastidious,  and 
sporadic  efforts  were  made  to  foster  in  the  community 
by  means  of  periodicals  the  native  love  of  letters. 

Literary  magazines  were  brought  forth  in  one  or 
another  of  our  chief  towns  in  ambitious  succession. 
They  were  mostly  of  the  monthly  order,  and  each  gave 
up  the  ghost  after  a  few  full  moons  of  feeble  existence.1 
America  took  her  cue  from  the  mother  country;  and 
in  England  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  had  been  reared 

Isaiah  Thomas,  himself  a  pioneer  in  that  line  of  publication, 
gives  some  interesting  statistics  under  this  head  in  his  "History 
of  Printing,"  Vol.  2. 


144  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

and  confirmed  in  health  while  yet  the  colonies  were 
loyal  to  their  king.  Conceived  after  such  a  type,  six 
serials  were  set  up  in  Philadelphia,  one  after  another, 
and  the  same  consecutive  number  in  Boston ;  but  all  fell 
immature,  to  perish  by  the  wayside.  In  New  Jersey 
a  magazine  of  hardier  endurance  issued  in  1758,  under 
the  auspices  of  a  British  provincial  judge  of  versatile 
tastes  and  acquirements,  who  appears  to  have  had  not 
only  a  tenacious  purpose,  but,  what  was  of  equal  con 
sequence,  a  long  purse  besides.  This  periodical  lived 
for  twenty-seven  months — much  longer  than  the  aver 
age — and  then  paid  the  debt  of  nature  with  the  rest, 
unable  to  meet  its  other  claims.  "American  Magazine" 
was  a  title  so  much  in  favor  in  literary  ventures  of  this 
kind  that  were  it  not  for  Thomas's  History  the  gene 
alogy  of  those  early  productions  would  be  difficult  to 
trace.1 


For  journalism  proper,  however,  or  the  newspaper 
press,  with  its  more  attractive  mirror  of  passing  life 
and  its  reiterated  impulse  to  immediate  conduct,  the 
prospect  of  successful  circulation  and  influence  in  our 
society  was  stronger.  And  yet  the  colonial  press  was 

JThat  one  which  seems  to  have  lived  longest  in  our  colonial 
era  was  Boston's  American  Magazine  and  Historical  Chronicle, 
its  publication  lasting  for  the  full  and  remarkable  space  of  three 
years  and  four  months.  Perhaps,  in  a  historical  sense,  the  two 
most  notable  periodicals  of  this  epoch  were  the  two  latest  of  the 
list,  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine  or  American  Monthly  Museum, 
of  1775  (for  which  Thomas  Paine  wrote),  and  Isaiah  Thomas's 
own  ill-fated  issue  of  1774,  the  Royal  American  Magazine  or 
Universal  Repository,  whose  chief  serial  (in  monthly  instal 
ments)  was  Governor  Hutchinson's  "History  of  New  England." 
Double  titles  were  at  this  time  quite  the  fashion,  and,  like  an 
ox  or  a  dilemma,  each  literary  bantling  of  the  day  bore  two 
horns. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  145 

not  thus  early  a  strong  force  in  America;  and  where 
it  seemed  impressive  at  all,  that  impressiveness  was 
mostly  confined  to  the  constituency  of  a  single  province 
or  of  a  provincial  neighborhood.  We  may  safely  con 
firm  what  others  have  already  asserted,1  that  the  pam 
phlet  in  this  primitive  age  had  more  powerful  effect 
upon  the  popular  mind  than  the  newspaper.  Perhaps 
the  very  fact  that  pamphlets  sought  their  constituencies 
far  and  wide,  free  from  local  trammel,  or  from  that 
recurring  official  presence  whose  familiarity  may  breed 
contempt,  contributed  to  such  a  result.  The  immense 
continental  circulation  and  influence  of  the  pamphlet 
"Common  Sense"  is  in  point.  For  our  people  in  those 
days  read  and  spent  money  in  purchasing  whatever 
might  interest  them  deeply  at  the  moment  and  instigate 
immediate  conduct,  whether  books  or  pamphlets ;  while 
to  weekly  instructors,  bearing  this  name  or  that,  they 
were  less  susceptible  and  gave  less  heed.  The  news 
paper,  moreover,  came  to  hand  too  infrequently  in  that 
age  to  be  to  British  subjects  either  a  constant  mentor 
or  a  constant  purveyor  of  tidings.  Men  took  the 
printed  news  of  the  day  much  in  the  retrospect;  they 
interchanged  old  numbers  of  the  Gazette  or  the  Chron 
icle  to  read  over  at  leisure;  and  very  many  depended 
upon  the  chance  of  a  stale  perusal  of  journals  which 
they  cared  not  to  purchase  individually.  The  most 
stirring  announcement  of  Revolutionary  incidents — of 
a  battle,  of  a  measure  passed  in  Congress  or  the  British 
Parliament,  of  a  public  proclamation — came  not  so 
often  by  the  newspaper  as  by  some  public  messenger, 
speeding  on  horseback,  by  some  special  post  or  courier, 
or  by  some  vessel  just  arrived  from  abroad,  whose 
captain  or  passengers  arrived  primed  with  intelligence 
*I  Tyler's  "History  of  American  Literature." 


146  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

well  stored  during  the  tedious  voyage.  It  was  the 
private  letter-sheet  upon  which  a  careful  collector  of 
news  would  rely,  more  than  upon  information  direct 
from  the  press  as  then  conducted.  Neighbors  picked 
up  local  information  apart  and  then  interchanged  their 
intelligence. 

We  at  the  present  day,  who  take  as  matter  of  course 
the  huge  expenditure  to  which  the  chief  newspaper  con 
ductors  are  daily  put,  in  vigorous  competition,  so  as  to 
place  before  millions  of  readers  in  the  aggregate  the 
happenings  of  each  day  and  hour  in  places  near  or 
remote — and  this  not  by  an  army  of  wandering  spies 
and  reporters  alone,  with  every  possible  facility  to  speed 
from  point  to  point  in  person,  but  by  local  agents,  posted 
all  over  the  world,  at  whose  instant  service  is  placed  the 
inland  and  ocean  telegraph,  with  lightning  speed  for 
despatches — we,  I  say,  cannot  readily  realize  the  far 
inferior  and  really  humble  facilities  which  the  presses 
of  our  Revolutionary  age  possessed  for  disseminating 
their  meagre  information.  With  bulletin  boards  ex 
posed  daily  before  our  eyes,  whose  headlines  change 
from  hour  to  hour,  to  give  the  epitome  of  each  day's 
happenings ;  with  newsboys  hastening  to  and  fro,  fore 
noon  and  afternoon,  eager  to  supply  to  each  one  who 
walks  our  streets  the  world's  fresh  tidings,  in  successive 
editions,  for  the  smallest  possible  outlay  in  coin ;  every 
one,  in  our  cities  at  least,  tends  to  become  the  reader  and 
sole  owner  of  a  sheet  made  up  to  please  his  particular 
palate,  and  ascertains  for  himself  almost  at  a  glance 
the  latest  news  and  the  lesson  to  deduct  from  them. 
The  very  appetite  thus  created  must  be  regularly  grati 
fied;  so  that  newspaper  reading  and  getting  the  latest 
intelligence  become  a  sort  of  daily  dissipation,  a  craving 
at  recurring  hours,  like  the  alcohol  or  morphine  habit. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  147 

Instantaneous  photographs  of  what  is  passing  here  and 
at  a  distance  merge  into  one  another  confusedly,  like  the 
successive  scenes  of  a  street  camera  or  rapidly  moving 
pictures  on  the  retina  of  the  eyeball.  But  from  all 
such  stimulants,  such  rush  of  impressions,  our  fore 
fathers  were  remarkably  free,  as  they  must  needs  have 
been  at  that  imperfect  stage  of  the  world's  inventive 
progress ;  they  might  muddle  their  brains  with  rum  or 
brandy,  as  many  do  even  nowadays,  but  the  delirium 
of  the  world's  stereopticon  sights  did  not  afflict  them. 
When  news  came,  except  those  of  their  own  immediate 
vicinity,  they  came  in  a  huge  mass,  and  time  was  need 
ful  to  digest  and  assimilate  or  to  cast  up  the  conse 
quences. 

Thus  do  we  realize  and  appreciate  why  the  pamphlet 
was  the  potent  factor  of  our  colonial  age  rather  than  the 
newspaper;  a  condition  which  has  since  been  notably 
reversed.  Yet  native  journalism  found  its  sphere  of 
usefulness  even  then.  Such  business  brought  together 
no  vast  capital  in  brains  or  money  for  developing  influ 
ence  and  gaining  a  circulation;  but  humble,  impecuni 
ous  men  were  its  creators  and  conductors.  It  was 
carried  on  usually  as  a  convenient  adjunct  to  the  book 
and  job-printing  trade ;  hence  the  proprietor  of  a  news 
paper  was  commonly  styled  the  "printer,"  and  in  the 
mechanical  plant  of  his  publication  consisted  the  main 
outlay.  This  "printer,"  though  he  might  rise  by  per 
sonal  merit  above  his  rank  as  a  craftsman,  was  a  sort 
of  impersonal  potentate  with  the  public ;  and  with  rare 
exceptions  the  editorial  skill  bestowed  upon  these 
colonial  newspapers  was  of  the  slightest.  Editors,  men 
of  real  intellect  and  capacity,  who,  using  the  "we,"  gave, 
nevertheless,  a  personal  spice  and  flavor  to  the  journals 
under  their  control,  belong  to  the  later  epoch  of 


148  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

America's  independence  and  union.  Still  less  was  fore 
shadowed  thus  early  the  co-operative  intellect  and 
energy  which  nowadays  and  still  later  in  point  of  time 
contrive  to  vaunt  with  business  push  the  particular 
sheet — the  Sun,  the  Herald  and  the  like — as  of  itself, 
with  its  own  ideal  name  and  abstraction,  a  fit  object 
for  popular  admiration,  the  editor  ceasing  once  more 
to  pose  as  a  personality. 


In  short,  in  those  earlier  times  the  printer  of  the 
newspaper  made  his  profit,  if  he  might,  upon  his  me 
chanical  work,  through  the  patronage  of  the  public; 
while  intellectual  matter  for  his  columns  had  to  be  made 
up  after  a  scrambling  fashion  and  gratuitously.  In  a 
literary  sense,  the  press  was  fed  by  crumbs  from  the 
tables  of  its  patrons  and  by  fostering  the  ambition  or 
vanity  of  such  as  might  like  to  see  themselves  in  print 
as  contributors.  Yet  our  deity  of  the  machine  was 
a  public  benefactor,  in  a  sense,  and  deserved  all 
such  amateur  assistance.  When  religious  or  political 
excitement  was  high,  local  leaders  gifted  with  the  pen 
would  discuss  in  such  columns  the  burning  question  of 
the  day  and  harangue  their  fellow-citizens  as  from  a 
rostrum.  These  were  the  real  conductors  of  a  press  in 
colonial  and  Revolutionary  times — a  splendid,  unpaid 
staff,  moved  by  patriotic  fervor  or  the  ambition  to  gain 
substantial  reward  elsewhere.  Their  pseudonyms  were 
various  and  chiefly  classical — "Lucius,"  "Brutus,"  and 
the  like,  for  they  were  largely  collegians,  bred  to  the 
bar.  This  condition  prevailed  as  well  with  the  press 
of  the  mother  country,  where,  too,  in  that  era  the 
printer  could  little  afford  to  engage  talent  for  his  news 
paper  at  his  individual  cost.  For  the  English-born 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  149 

statesman  here  or  at  home  gave  such  influential  service 
as  a  gift  to  his  fellow-countrymen;  while  the  printer 
ran  -his  own  sufficient  risk  of  the  suppression  of  his 
sheet  or  a  criminal  prosecution  should  government 
deem  the  matter  seditious  and  apply  the  screws  of  the 
law. 

It  was  between  1766  and  1772  that  the  famous 
"Junius"  letters  appeared  by  pseudonym  in  a  London 
press,  and  startled  British  society  by  their  pungency, 
vehemence  and  intrepidity,  not  to  add  by  the  scathing 
ferocity  with  which  they  attacked  men  high  in  official 
station.  And,  with  a  like  vindication  of  the  public 
liberties  as  their  motive,  did  John  Adams,  John  Dickin 
son  and  other  colonists  of  America  remonstrate  some 
what  later  against  Parliament  and  the  British  ministry 
through  the  colonial  press,  with  an  authorship  similarly 
veiled.  Whether,  indeed,  it  were  by  letters  in  the  local 
press  or  by  pamphlet,  the  anonymous  character  of  the 
appeal  was  quite  commonly  preserved,  for  prudence  or 
modesty's  sake,  or  so  as  to  follow  the  fashion,  or,  once 
more,  in  the  belief  that  one's  effectiveness  would  be 
greater  if  the  reader  had  to  guess  who  was  addressing 
him.  And  this  custom  lasted  in  contributions  to  our 
press  long  after  the  Revolution,  the  younger  school  of 
statesmen,  like  Hamilton,  Madison  and  John  Quincy 
Adams,  using  freely  the  columns  of  a  newspaper  to  im 
part  under  one  fictitious  name  or  another  their  personal 
views  upon  passing  politics.1  Though  a  few — a  very 
few — newspaper  printers  and  editors  of  those  early 
times  dropped  their  own  seedcorn  to  fructify  for  Revo 
lution  in  the  public  mind,  like  their  anonymous  con- 
Recall,  e.g.,  the  Federalist  newspaper  letters  of  1788.  We 
know  the  names  of  the  authors  of  that  series;  but  who  asks 
the  name  of  the  newspaper  in  which  they  appeared? 


150  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

tributors,  posterity  has  found  little  occasion  to  recall  or 
honor  them  in  the  silent  oratory  of  our  human  race. 
And  this,  too,  while  the  printer's  personal  name  was 
advertised  at  the  head  of  the  page  and  widely  known, 
while  these  writers  could  be  discovered  in  their  true 
identity  only  through  those  who  took  pains  to  inquire. 
Even  Benjamin  Franklin — an  exception  to  this  as  he 
was  to  most  other  conventional  rules  of  his  day — 
gained  power  and  renown  not  so  much  by  the  press  into 
which  as  owner  he  infused  his  own  liberal  ideas  and 
methods  as  by  his  almanac,  and  still  more  from  the 
public  posts  to  which  a  prosperous  and  successful  print 
ing  career  transferred  him. 

So,  once  again,  in  matters  of  social  comment,  in  ani 
madversion  upon  follies  then  fashionable,  in  censure  or 
applause,  it  was  the  contributor  who  chiefly  supplied 
matter  for  readers  to  ruminate  upon.  News  came 
to  the  printer  by  the  oral  report  of  unpaid  callers  or 
through  extracts  submitted  him  for  publication  from 
their  private  correspondence;  while  such  local  intelli 
gence  as  he  might  otherwise  gain  he  collected  in  person 
without  special  assistance.  While  authenticity  was  con 
scientiously  sought,  qualifying  words  would  appear  in 
the  printed  paragraph  in  case  of  doubt ;  and  informed, 
as  the  conductor  often  was,  by  those  of  the  highest 
social  standing,  or  by  public  men  most  qualified  to  know 
the  inner  trend  of  politics,  the  shield  of  impersonality 
was  to  all  concerned  the  constant  tegument  of  safety. 
Beyond  this  it  should  be  said  that  our  colonial  news 
papers  made  up  their  matter  to  a  large  extent  by  using 
the  scissors  and  paste-pot.  The  latest  London  budget 
and  extracts  from  London  newspapers  served  to  fill 
many  a  column  of  the  week's  issue;  while  with  so  many 
presses  of  different  provinces  whose  specialty  was  local 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  1 5 1 

information,  our  newspapers,  like  some  species  of  fish, 
may  be  said  to  have  lived  upon  one  another. 

As  with  books,  so  with  magazines  and  newspapers 
in  that  colonial  age,  we  were  prone  to  be  imitators  or 
purloiners  from  the  mother  country.  And  not  to  speak 
of  English  news  matter,  our  native  presses  would  trans 
fer  to  their  own  vacant  pages  from  the  latest  English 
newspaper  a  poem  or  sentimental  essay  whenever  native 
happenings  failed  and  the  village  versifier  or  Addison- 
ians,  or  the  choice  champions  of  political  discussion  with 
classical  masks  suspended  their  free  effusion. 


Printed  newspapers,  so  far  as  these  thirteen  colonies 
were  concerned,  came  in  with  the  eighteenth  century; 
and  the  Boston  News  Letter  of  1704  was  the  first  real 
press  of  the  kind  that  ever  lived  here  actually  after 
being  born.1  "Every  one  is  well  born,"  says  Dr.  John 
son,  "who  is  born  at  all."  Both  in  our  own  unde 
veloped  colonies  and  in  the  mother  country  the  immedi 
ate  precursor  of  the  printed  newspaper  was  the  "News 
Letter"  itself  in  its  primitive  sense:  in  other  words, 
a  manuscript  which  was  issued  in  form  of  a  letter, 
multiplied  in  copies  by  the  pen  and  posted  in  coffee 
houses  or  taverns  where  men  were  wont  to  resort  for 
discourse  and  discussion.  This  manuscript,  originally 
for  shipping  intelligence  alone,  added  presently  .  the 
items  of  leading  local  news  and  miscellaneous  matter. 
The  Boston  News  Letter  had,  in  fact,  been  thus  issued 
in  a  written  form  before  its  publisher  sought  to  create 
a  wider  circulation  by  printing  the  sheet.  Features  of 

Hudson's  Journalism  makes  mention  of  Public  Occurrences, 
a  sheet  which  appeared  in  Boston  in  1690,  but  was  suppressed 
by  authority  as  soon  as  it  issued. 


152  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

social  gossip  and  criticism  bloomed  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century  into  that  series  of  printed  essays — 
half  pamphlet  and  half  periodical — whose  coffee-house 
fragrance  diffused  its  most  perfect  aroma  in  the  still 
famous  Spectator.  Manuscript  newspapers  were  still 
put  forth  prior  to  and  during  the  Revolution  in  parts 
of  this  country  where  the  inducement  for  a  printing 
outfit  was  wanting.1 

Our  Anglo-Saxon  or  Anglo-American  newspaper, 
then,  was  not  ushered  into  existence  as  a  social  or  politi 
cal  organ,  a  formulator  of  public  opinion,  but  rather — 
and  so  the  word  itself  imports — as  a  disseminator  of 
news;  though  its  potential  influence  as  a  corrector  of 
politics  or  of  social  fashions  soon  followed.  Hence  we 
should  not  think  it  strange  that  in  the  earlier  years  of 
newspaper  circulation  men  preferred  for  guidance  in 
affairs  their  pulpit  preachers,  their  orators,  or  those 
who  in  printed  book  or  pamphlet  put  themselves  frankly 
forward  to  discuss  a  pending  problem  without  pro 
fessing  to  be  the  general  purveyor  of  information. 
Hence,  too,  the  primitive  posture  of  a  newspaper  printer 
in  lending  his  columns  occasionally  to  local  readers  and 
men  of  education  who  sought  to  influence  opinion, 
rather  than  obtrude  himself  upon  his  own  readers  as  a 
competent  shepherd  of  the  people. 

While  in  the  age  I  am  describing  presses  bore  such 
names  as  the  Spy,  the  Mercury,  the  Journal,  the  Post 
and  the  Chronicle,  decidedly  the  favorite  title  was  the 
Gazette.  The  Boston  Gazette,  dating  from  1755,  was 
a  famous  organ  of  the  king's  rebellious  subjects  in  that 
town ;  Ben  Edes,  its  conductor,  being  a  fearless  patriot 

^ee  New  Jersey  Plain  Dealer,  whose  manuscript  was  printed 
later  as  a  literary  curiosity.  Of  this  volume  the  Boston 
Athenaeum  has  a  copy,  which  I  have  consulted. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  153 

during  the  palmy  days  of  his  influence.  The  Pennsyl 
vania  Gazette,  Franklin's  more  even-paced  and  prosper 
ous  sheet,  spread  its  widening  influence  through  our 
middle  colonies  in  the  earlier  days  of  peace  and  tran 
quillity  ;  and  its  sagacious  founder  infused  into  it  a  wise 
progressiveness,  studying  how  to  make  it  useful  and 
attractive  in  every  direction. 

When  the  grand  issue  stirred  native  hearts,  our  patri 
otic  presses  put  forward  some  memorable  devices. 
There  was  the  famous  wood-cut  of  the  severed  snake, 
with  "join  or  die"  for  its  prophetic  motto.  One  Phila 
delphia  paper  announced  its  own  epitaph  in  1765,  when 
the  Starnp  Act  was  about  to  operate — "Died  of  a  stamp 
in  the  vitals ;"  but  that  act  failing  of  operation,  it  rose 
to  life  again.  When  in  1776  the  liberty  bell  rang  out 
its  proclamation  in  Philadelphia,  the  New  England 
Chronicle  of  Boston  changed  promptly  its  name  to  the 
Independent  Chronicle;  its  title-heading  was  embel 
lished  with  the  words  "appeal  to  Heaven;"  while  the 
figure  of  a  continental  officer  with  drawn  sword  ap 
peared  on  one  side  of  the  first  page  and  a  scroll  "Inde 
pendence"  on  the  other. 

In  colonial  days  the  premises  of  the  printer,  whence 
issued  his  sheet,  served  as  a  sort  of  intelligence  office 
and  headquarters  for  such  as  might  advertise  in  his 
paper  or  come  to  answer  the  wants.  Servants  and 
laborers  in  search  of  a  situation,,  the  respondent  for 
things  lost  or  found,  met  often  here  promiscuously ;  and 
"apply  to  the  printer"  was  the  tail  phrase  of  many  a 
paid  insertion  in  his  columns,  with  more  than  a  formal 
meaning.  We  read  in  one  paper  of  1772  that  a  lady 
had  lost  her  "black  double  satin  cardinal,  almost  new," 
which  she  suspects  was  "stolen  by  one  of  the  various 
nurses  wanting  a  situation  whom  she  found  at  the  house 


154  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

of  the  printer  when  she  called  there  to  engage  one  for 
herself." 


Among  the  general  news  which  our  press  afforded 
in  those  days  were  those  relating  to  politics,  announce 
ments  of  local  marriages  or  deaths,  with  a  passing  com 
pliment  or  obituary  tribute;  the  weather  phenomena, 
shipping  or  business  intelligence,  gained  chiefly  from 
posters  at  the  custom-house,  and  items  of  accident  and 
sudden  death,  or  of  the  conviction  or  punishment  for 
crime.  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette  gave  little,  com 
paratively,  of  local  information,  except  for  shipping 
news  and  the  leading  prices-current,  though  promoting 
various  local  reforms.  Most  items  furnished  to  the 
public  were  set  forth  by  the  editor  in  sober  earnest ;  and 
the  general  tone  of  our  press  in  colonial  days  was  that 
of  honest  and  downright  sincerity,  as  from  a  publisher 
who  honored  the  powers  ordained  of  God  and  meant  to 
keep  clear  of  prosecution.  London  clippings  yielded 
most  of  the  jokes  or  rumors  afloat  in  high  society;  a 
well-prepared  pun,  or  perhaps  some  original  poem, 
essay  or  private  letter  would  enliven  the  more  prosaic 
contents  of  the  printed  sheet.  Contributors  were  com 
monly  in  earnest  themselves,  save  where  they  affected 
to  be  of  learning  superior  to  the  mass  and  hit  off  social 
follies  with  conceit.  Among  the  favorite  names  of 
the  social  or  political  contributor  were  Chronus,  Tullius, 
Junius,  Americanus,  Civis,  Fervidus,  Lenitas,  Can- 
didus,  Probus  and  Publius ;  and  certainly  it  was  not  in 
good  taste  to  publish  a  contribution  over  the  writer's 
own  signature.  Most  Latin  names,  phrases  and  quo 
tations  were  printed  quite  accurately,  indicating,  per 
haps,  that  the  writer  revised  his  own  proof ;  but  where 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  155 

one  of  these  classical  contributors  had  started  out  in 
his  essay  with  a  Greek  verse  by  way  of  text,  the  defer 
ential  conductor  apologized  publicly  in  his  paper  for 
omitting  it,  assigning  the  excellent  excuse  that  he  had 
no  type  on  hand  in  that  language. 

To  the  style  of  advertisement  in  the  press  of  this 
early  era  I  have  alluded  elsewhere.1  Advertising 
patronage  even  thus  early  constituted  an  important  item 
in  the  printer's  reckoning,  whenever  his  balance  sheet 
was  made  up.  But  advertising  was  not  so  very  great 
or  profitable,  so  far  as  the  people  were  concerned ;  and 
jobs  from  government  were  much  sought  after.  For 
our  merchants  and  business  men  were  rather  niggardly 
in  expenditures  of  such  a  kind.  Mixed  advertisements 
might  often  be  seen;  and  where  a  person  had  needful 
occasion  to  pay  for  newspaper  space  on  one  account, 
he  used  it  on  another.  Thus  one  would  insert  an  item 
of  "lost"  or  "found,"  and  within  the  space  so  occupied 
he  managed  to  give  the  public  a  hint  of  his  trade.  A 
surveyor  who  offered  for  sale  a  manual  on  that  special 
branch  of  practical  knowledge  solicited  employment. 
A  disconsolate  widow,  or  even  the  personal  friend  who 
gave  the  usual  probate  notice  as  executor  (of  which 
most  probably  the  estate  bore  the  cost),  announced  a 
personal  business  conducted  at  the  old  stand  or  else 
where.  One  offers  his  horse  for  sale,  and  adds  in  a 
postscript  that  some  excellent  snuff  may  be  bought  on 
his  premises.  For  if  printing  space  is  paid  for  by  the 
inch,  the  full  area  may  as  well  be  occupied  profitably. 
In  disputes  matrimonial,  I  have  alluded  to  a  prevalent 
disposition,  among  New  Englanders  at  least,  to  take 
their  quarrels  to  the  press,  and  try  to  enlist  public  opin 
ion  by  way  of  a  leverage.  And  so  was  it  in  many  of 
aSee  pp.  20,  70-72. 


156  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  other  disputes  of  ordinary  life.  In  short,  people 
tenacious  of  their  own  rights,  and  disposed  to  argu 
ment,  made  through  the  press  in  those  days  a  sort  of 
referendum  of  their  disputes,  as  though  in  town 
meeting;  seeking  to  hurt  an  opponent,  if  nothing  more, 
by  processes  which  might  take  the  place  of  litigation, 
on  the  one  hand,  or  the  lawlessness,  on  the  other,  of  a 
knock-down  blow. 

As  photographing  primitive  manners  and  customs, 
the  press  of  this  period  affords,  perhaps,  in  its  advertise 
ments,  matter  quite  as  apt  and  entertaining  for  histori 
cal  use  as  the  so-called  news  which  it  more  consciously 
supplied.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of  most  other 
epochs  in  journalism;  for  the  advertiser  is  one  of  our 
common  people  soliciting  his  own  contemporaries  and 
thinking  how  to  make  cleverly  an  immediate  impression 
for  his  own  profit.  Hence  he  reveals  the  hum  and 
hurry,  the  business  intent  and  ingenuity,  the  working- 
day  habit  of  his  times  with  all  the  fidelity  of  a  snap-shot 
from  the  camera.  How  houses  and  lands  were  sold 
or  rented  in  the  days  of  our  Revolutionary  ancestors; 
what  chattels,  goods  and  merchandise  were  chiefly  in 
demand;  how  the  posts  or  the  stages  went  and  came; 
how  people  dressed  or  looked,  what  they  ate,  drank  or 
were  disposed  to  seek  for  their  domestic  wants ;  what 
sort  of  things,  lost  and  found,  had  been  carried  about 
the  person — all  this  we  discover  in  detail  by  the  press 
advertisements  of  that  age  still  preserved  to  us.  We 
see,  moreover,  from  the  printed  cards  of  those  who 
furnished  amusement  or  instruction,  how  programmes 
were  made  up,  how  deferentially  the  teacher  or  pur 
veyor  accosted  his  patrons,  and  how  rarely,  moreover, 
the  great  majority  of  our  progenitors  indulged  in  public 
sports  or  public  indoor  amusements. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  157 

To  attract  wide  attention  by  expensive  advertising 
was  not  cultivated,  other  modes  for  gaining  popular 
notice  being  in  vogue.  Hucksters  with  leathern  lungs 
called  out  in  the  street  the  wares  or  provender  they  had 
to  offer,  while  the  town  crier,  with  bell  or  horn  to 
attract  a  crowd,  went  his  daily  rounds  to  make  petty 
proclamation.  Mercantile  advertisements  in  our  papers 
stood  not  seldom  as  cards  from  week  to  week,  but  the 
space  of  a  single  advertisement  would  rarely  exceed 
three  inches,  and  was  usually  much  shorter.  Patrons 
like  these  were  often  postponed  for  the  sake  of  the 
general  reader;  and  where  the  occasional  load  of 
European  news  bore  with  heavy  pressure  upon  his  four 
pages,  the  printer  would  omit  standing  advertisements 
from  week  to  week,  \vith  a  public  apology  for  want  of 
room,  publicly  assuring  such  customers  that  when  news 
were  dull  and  his  columns  became  clear  again  they 
should  have  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  the  paper. 
A  few  conductors  at  our  larger  provincial  centres,  more 
worldly  wise,  met  a  crowded  situation  like  this  by  issu 
ing  a  half-sheet  supplement,  so  as  to  afford  more  room 
for  news  and  advertisements  together;  but  such  ex 
travagance  was  rare. 

As  to  the  adaptation  of  newspaper  space  to  an  ex 
igency  in  colonial  times,  I  may  remark  more  generally 
that  the  postponement  of  local  and  domestic  matter  by 
reason  of  some  important  intelligence  from  Europe  was 
by  no  means  uncommon.  For  such  a  reason  the  printer 
would  ask  specially  the  indulgence  of  his  readers  for 
deferring  to  the  next  weekly  issue  an  appeal  for  building 
a  fort,  or  some  contributor's  letter,  or,  more  accommo 
dating,  he  would  cut  the  one  or  the  other,  printing  half 
in  the  present  issue  and  postponing  the  residue  to 
another  week.  One  Philadelphia  paper  of  1769  divided 


158  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

thus  a  poem  on  liberty,  "to  be  concluded  in  our  next." 
Newspaper  readers  of  the  day  bore  all  such  shifts  with 
complacency,  learning  "to  labor  and  to  wait."  On  the 
other  hand,  whenever  his  usual  supply  of  matter  ran 
short,  the  printer  felt  no  compunction  at  filling  his 
vacant  space  with  selected  poems,  essays  and  other  liter 
ary  compost  transferred  boldly  from  the  London 
periodicals.  As  elsewhere,  the  prosaic  or  matter-of- 
fact  predominated  in  our  press,  aside  from  preaching. 
In  a  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  1771  may  be  seen  an  ex 
tract  from  Smollett's  "Humphry  Clinker,"  which, 
newly  issued,  was  then  creating  quite  a  sensation  in 
London  circles ;  but  the  products  of  imagination  found 
seldom  such  recognition  at  that  date.1 


We  may  recall  that  the  model  provincial  newspaper 
of  Stamp  Act  times  was  in  size  only  a  folio,  or  four 
pages  quarto,  with  two  or  possibly  three  columns  to  a 
page;  that  twelve  inches  by  six  was  the  average 
measurement ;  that  half  of  such  space  was  the  maximum 
for  advertisements,  and  that  the  gift  to  subscribers  of 
an  extra  supplement,  printed  as  a  single  page  or  per 
haps  on  both  sides  of  an  added  sheet,  was  an  outlay 
very  rarely  permissible.  "Blanket  sheets/'  enlarged 
so  as  to  make  the  most  of  four  pages,  came  much  later 
into  vogue,  and  that  fashion  has  disappeared  with  our 
later  disposition  for  less  area  and  an  increased  number 
of  pages.  With  the  average  limit  of  four  modest-sized 
pages,  then,  the  exact  occupation  of  space  must  some 
times  have  been  perplexing,  though  fortunately  for  him- 

'Solid  books,  such  as  Robertson's  "History  of  America,"  made 
the  preferable  padding  when  times  were  dull  and  the  space 
unoccupied. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  159 

self  the  printer  or  conductor  of  those  early  times  had 
what  in  our  day  would  be  thought  an  ample  leisure  for 
putting  his  matter  together.  For  newspapers  in  those 
times  were  issued  only  weekly,  or,  in  rare  and  unpros- 
perous  instances,  semi-weekly.  Not  a  single  daily  press 
had  as  yet  been  established  in  all  America,  and  one 
experiment  of  a  tri-weekly  issue  had  been  a  notable 
failure.1 

As  for  the  price  of  our  colonial  newspapers  at  the 
dawn  of  Revolution,  this,  exclusive  of  postage  or  of 
the  carrier's  expressage,  which  might  amount  to  con 
siderable,  was  commonly  reckoned  at  about  8s.  a  year 
($2)  for  weekly  numbers.  Of  that  subscription  price, 
half  was  nominally  payable  in  advance  and  the  balance 
at  the  end  of  six  months.  In  1777,  when  the  American 
currency  was  inflated,  the  cost  of  printing  materials 
forced  up  the  price  of  the  newspaper  considerably. 
Paper  was  to  some  extent  a  home  industry,  and  native 
paper  mills  were  started  early,  both  in  the  Massachu 
setts  and  Pennsylvania  colonies.  But  the  scarcity  of 
rags  became  a  serious  hindrance  to  such  manufacture 
in  this  country,  and  many  were  the  expedients  devised 
for  procuring  such  household  remnants  by  a  house-to- 
house  collection.  Naturally  enough,  the  journals  of  our 
remote  and  sparsely  settled  regions  acquired  a  peculiarly 
dingy  look  when  paper  rated  high  in  the  market;  and 
the  straits  in  this  respect  became  dire  in  all  America 
whenever  and  wherever  the  pressure  of  Revolution  was 
sorely  felt.  Our  presses  and  metal  type  were  largely 
imported  from  Great  Britain ;  and  on  the  whole,  colonial 

*It  is  related,  however,  that  while  New  York  was  occupied  by 
the  British  troops  the  several  newspapers  so  arranged  their  re 
spective  days  of  publication  that  one  or  another  would  come 
out  each  day;  and  this  was  the  acme  of  American  journalistic 
enterprise  in  those  times. — Hudson's  Journalism. 


160  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

newspapers  presented,  from  a  mechanical  point  of  view, 
a  neat  and  creditable  appearance.  The  proof-reading 
was  careful;  and  so  punctilious  were  some  establish 
ments  in  this  respect — for  the  printer  as  proprietor  ap 
peared  ubiquitous — that  we  see  sometimes  the  news 
paper's  latest  issue  stating  the  slight  correction  of  some 
misprinted  word  contained  in  that  of  the  previous  week. 
Post-riders  in  those  days  carried  newspapers  to  out- 
of-town  subscribers,  and  such  special  delivery  yielded 
to  that  class  of  public  servants  an  important  perquisite. 
Local  newsboys  seem  to  have  been  unknown,  nor  could 
the  cash  sales  of  single  numbers  on  the  street  or  over 
the  counter  have  been  greatly  provided  for.  There  was 
no  shouting  or  hawking  about  of  such  weekly  wares. 
It  was  regular  subscribers,  special  donors  and  adver 
tisers  upon  whom  the  paper  really  depended  for  sup 
port;  and  the  credit  system  of  subscription,  pursued  in 
that  day  by  printer  and  carrier  alike,  kept  each  anxious 
and  impecunious.  We  see  a  newspaper  printing  its 
meek  but  urgent  request  that  customers  send  their  sub 
scription  money  by  the  carrier  "where  they  have  owed 
for  more  than  a  year."  Most  humbly  and  pathetically 
does  one  of  these  printers  set  forth  special  reasons  why 
the  arrears  due  him  ought  to  be  settled — that  he  has 
many  accounts  of  his  own  which  are  not  yet  discharged ; 
that  he  has  been  confined  many  months  by  sickness  and 
by  the  death  of  his  late  partner,  and  hence  has  been 
prevented  from  collecting  his  dues.1  One  Boston  press 
in  1776  urges  all  indebted  to  the  printer  to  pay  up, 
inasmuch  as  he  has  suffered  great  loss  by  the  blockade. 
Other  excuses  were  piteously  alleged  for  dunning  the 
delinquent — that  the  printer  has  bought  new  types  or  a 
press,  or  that  he  plans  improvements  in  his  business. 
*M.  G.,  1767. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  161 

To  such  appeals  the  post-rider — who  not  seldom  trav 
elled  with  a  special  power  of  attorney  from  the  printer, 
duly  signed  and  acknowledged — would  dolefully  add  a 
dun  of  his  own.  "I  cannot  afford  to  serve  customers 
longer  unless  they  pay  up  arrears,"  complains  one  of 
these.  Such  appeals,  appearing  in  the  journal's  own 
columns  by  way  of  advertising  card,  were  couched,  of 
course,  in  general  and  impersonal  terms,  giving  no 
names  to  identify  the  parties  delinquent.  In  the  town 
or  city  of  publication  the  printer  himself,  or  the  printer's 
devil,  often  made  delivery  of  papers  in  person  to  the 
local  subscribers. 

Subscribers,  on  their  own  part,  we  may  opine,  were 
many  of  them  heedless  of  their  own  petty  obligations  in 
this  respect.  It  is  one  thing  for  a  man  whose  subscription 
is  asked  for  a  publication  upon  the  deferred  payment, 
plan  to  put  down  his  name  with  pomp  or  effusive  compli 
ment,  but  it  is  quite  another  to  produce  the  cash  prom 
ised  when  the  canvasser  comes  round.  Influential  men 
of  that  period,  and,  indeed,  of  times  much  later,  were 
wont  to  look  down  contemptuously  upon  printers  and 
editors  and  all  of  that  plebeian  craft  who  lived  or  sought 
to  live  by  journalism.  But  the  day  for  editors  and 
moneyless  or  scurrilous  press  writers  had  hardly 
dawned  upon  America  when  Revolution  broke  out ;  for 
hitherto  the  printer  had  done  most  of  his  own  editing, 
such  as  it  was.  The  press,  however,  as  thus  owned  and 
conducted,  was  of  undoubted  service  to  the  cause  of 
independence.  Printers  in  the  several  provinces  or 
States  were  frequently  urged  by  the  Continental  Con 
gress  to  circulate  its  public  appeals;  and  the  patriotic 
among  them  did  so  with  hearty  sympathy. 

It  was  a  familiar  Delphic  saying  as  far  back  as  1767 
that  "the  liberty  of  the  press,  when  not  abused,  is  of 


162  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

inestimable  benefit."  Yet  the  old  common  law  of  libel 
was  quite  severe ;  and  the  only  British  safeguard  of  an 
outspoken  and  imprudent  expression,  however  honest, 
against  men  in  power  lay  in  the  submission  of  the  case 
and  its  facts  to  a  jury.  The  truth  of  the  alleged  libel 
could  not  be  shown  in  mitigation  or  avoidance  of  dam 
ages,  for  "the  greater  the  truth,  the  greater  the  libel ;" 
and  the  point  on  which  a  verdict  was  to  turn — could 
only  a  jury  of  twelve  commoners  divest  themselves  of 
their  individual  sympathies,  which  they  did  not — was 
whether  the  words  themselves  were  of  libellous  import. 


Newspapers  of  every  era  aim  to  please  their  con 
stituency  of  readers  and  pecuniary  supporters;  hence 
the  prevalent  taste  of  journalism  during  colonial  times 
was  to  avoid  criticism  and  bitter  personalities  and  pay 
formal  compliments.  Certain  set  phrases  were  much 
employed  in  type  when  reporting  local  occasions  of 
interest;  and  many  such  reports  were  doubtless  con 
tributed  from  the  headquarters  of  those  who  took  part 
in  the  event.  The  sermon  at  an  ordination  was  likely  to 
be  "elegant  and  spirited;"  a  paragraph  which  an 
nounced  a  wedding  usually  paid  a  passing  tribute  to  the 
bride  as  "a  lady  of  superior  accomplishments;"  while 
funerals  and  obituaries  gave  a  peculiar  opportunity  for 
stock  phrases  of  the  elegiac  kind,  with  pious  application 
of  the  sad  event  for  the  good  of  the  living.  For  the 
printer,  like  the  preacher  of  those  times,  was  prone  to 
moralize  upon  the  providential  course  of  events  which 
it  became  his  duty  to  describe. 

To  some  of  the  small,  rude  wood  cuts  of  our  pro 
vincial  press  I  have  made  allusion.1  These  went 
*Antc,  p.  20. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRESS  163 

usually  with  advertisements,  and  served  in  a  sense  to 
classify  or  identify  them  for  the  reader's  convenience. 
Thus  a  runaway  servant  was  pictured  with  a  bag  on  a 
staff,  which  he  carried  over  his  shoulder ;  the  horse  thief 
was  seen  riding  his  stolen  steed  under  a  gallows  tree, 
whose  rope  and  noose  dangled  ominously  above  his 
head.  A  brig  or  schooner  under  full  sail  accompanied 
the  shipping  items  of  arrival  or  departure.  The  generic 
house  "to  let"  or  "for  sale"  stood  between  two  sturdy 
trees  of  equal  height  with  the  roof.  And  this  brings 
me  to  consider  the  general  subject  of  fine  art  in  America 
during  our  Revolutionary  age,  which  may  properly  be 
postponed  to  another  chapter. 


XII 

THE  FINE  ARTS 

THE  fine  arts  do  not  flourish  well  on  a  pioneer 
soil,  and  America's  advance  in  respect  of 
painting  and  sculpture  was  not  great  in  the 
days  of  our  Revolutionary  forefathers.  Native  talent 
sought  all  such  instruction  abroad,  and  much  of  the 
patronage,  besides,  that  might  afford  the  artist  a  living. 
Even  for  wood  or  copper-plate  engraving  we  depended 
chiefly  upon  the  mother  country  whenever  choice  speci 
mens  were  sought. 

But  Americans  showed  talent  and  ingenuity  wherever 
their  practical  efforts  were  earnestly  directed.  The 
versatile  Franklin  shows  us  in  his  Autobiography  that, 
after  serving  abroad  in  a  London  printing-office,  he 
mastered  the  art  of  working  in  copper-plate  sufficiently 
to  strike  off  colonial  bills  of  credit  after  a  tolerable 
fashion.  And  Paul  Revere  produced  geographical 
charts  and  rude  pictures  of  Boston  which  to-day  have 
an  historical  value. 

The  ambition  for  illustration  appeared  in  some  of 
America's  magazine  projects,  to  which  I  have  alluded; 
and  coarser  efforts  bore  fruit  in  the  almanacs,  their 
attractions  in  this  respect  being  specially  advertised,  as 
well  as  the  literary  contents.  Thus  the  Boston  Almanac 
for  1774  announced,  as  specimens  of  art  within  its 
covers,  besides  its  reading  matter,  "curious  engrav 
ings,"  so  styled ;  "the  head  of  the  son  of  a  New  Zealand 


THE  FINE  ARTS  165 

chief,"  with  that  of  the  chief  himself,  "tattooed  after 
their  custom;"  to  which  were  added  the  heads  of 
George  II.  and  George  III.  Other  pictures  which  gave 
luscious  temptation  to  the  book  were  a  war  canoe  of 
New  Zealand  engraved  on  copper  and  the  anatomy  of 
a  man's  body  as  governed  by  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
zodiac.  Another  almanac,  two  years  earlier,  boasted 
"the  elegant  head  of  the  Right  Honorable  William  Pitt, 
Earl  of  Chatham,"  together  with  the  figure  of  "a 
wonderful  man  fish."  A  third  almanac  of  the  same 
period  offered  its  readers,  by  way  of  appetizing  illus 
tration,  "the  famous  wild  beast  in  France  which  in  the 
year  1765  destroyed  upward  of  eighty  persons."  Still 
earlier,  Boston's  Almanac  for  1768  displayed  an  "ele 
gant  cut"  of  the  giants  called  Patagonians,  lately  dis 
covered. 

Anthropology  seems  to  have  much  occupied  the 
learned  men  of  Europe  in  those  days,  a  new  world 
with  strange  aborigines  having  opened  its  portals  for 
discovery  and  development.  The  North  American 
Indian,  by  this  time  tame,  comparatively,  and  disposed 
to  treaty  negotiation,  was  taken  about  our  leading  towns 
of  the  pale-faced,  to  see  the  sights  and  incidentally  place 
himself  on  exhibition.  We  are  told  of  some  copper- 
colored  chiefs  in  New  York  City  during  our  later  colo 
nial  days,  who  visited  the  theatre  and  were  much  edified 
by  the  play  of  "Richard  III. ;"  and  who,  taken  to  one 
of  the  scientific  lectures  then  popular,  where  artificial 
lightning  was  produced  from  an  electrical  machine, 
were  moved  to  astonishment.  In  1766  four  Indian 
warriors  with  three  squaws  were  conveyed  across  the 
seas  to  make  a  London  tour.  After  an  official  call  upon 
William  Pitt,  the  premier,  they  attended  an  Assembly 
ball,  which  was  opened  by  an  English  duke,  and  in  the 


166  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

course  of  the  evening  entertained  their  courtly  hosts 
by  performing  one  of  their  own  tribal  dances  upon  the 
floor,  with  accompaniment  of  the  war  whoop  and  wild 
gesticulation. 


Most  of  our  book  engravings  of  this  period  were 
of  very  moderate  merit;  and  wood  cuts  in  particular 
were  rude  and  coarse  both  in  design  and  execution. 
Some  eighteenth-century  edition  of  the  old  New  Eng 
land  primer,  or  an  old  copy  of  "Mother  Goose,"  or  the 
"Nursery  Rhymes,"  once  familiar  to  our  young  chil 
dren  and  their  caretakers,  may  serve  to  recall  the  style 
in  vogue.  The  pictures  were  usually  small ;  and  blocks 
once  prepared  underwent  strange  vicissitudes  in  the 
hands  of  penurious  printers  and  publishers.  When  the 
fervor  of  Whig  patriotism  brought  forward  new  candi 
dates  for  continental  fame  and  favor,  it  was  not  found 
difficult  to  reproduce  some  former  likeness  of  the 
British  monarch  or  his  minister,  with  its  indistinct, 
blurred  and  blotchy  features,  as  that  of  a  veritable 
Washington  or  "the  Honorable  John  Hancock,  Es 
quire."  I  can  myself  recall  an  instance  of  the  com 
mercial  shifts  to  which  cheap  wood-engraving  blocks 
were  formerly  put  in  this  country  as  late  as  1850  or 
thereabouts  in  my  native  State.  The  Almanac  had 
somewhat  earlier  printed  in  one  of  its  annual  issues 
little  engravings  designed  to  illustrate  consecutive 
months  of  the  calendar  year,  from  January  to  Decem 
ber  ;  and  these  pictures  reappeared  in  random  numbers 
of  a  new  temperance  magazine,  with  a  story  or  sug 
gestive  sketch  written  up  for  each  one,  to  inculcate  the 
lesson  of  total  abstinence. 

More  ambitious  engravings  were  sometimes  exposed 


THE  FINE  ARTS  167 

for  native  sale  in  our  Revolutionary  age,  nor  were  they 
always  imported  from  Europe,  though  such  was  usually 
the  case.  Besides  plain  steel  or  copper,  the  mezzotint 
process  was  at  this  time  in  much  demand;  and  we  see 
a  native  publisher  issuing  in  1775  his  proposals  for  a 
mezzotint  portrait  of  the  great  John  Hancock,  and 
testing  the  probable  profit  by  canvassing  subscriptions 
in  advance.  There  were,  of  course,  colonists  of  taste, 
affluence  and  social  position  who  ordered  costly  paint 
ings  direct  from  London ;  but  for  the  general  public,  the 
dealer  in  mezzotint  prints  and  engravings  sold  and  ad 
vertised  them  for  household  adornment,  in  company 
with  maps,  looking-glasses  and  picture-frames.  A  list 
advertised  in  1772  by  a  fashionable  importer  and  dealer 
in  Philadelphia  may  suggest  to  us  the  style  and  subjects 
most  favored  at  that  date  by  prosperous  commoners, 
in  our  middle  colonies  at  least,  for  furnishing  one's 
private  house.  Allegorical  pictures  figured  largely  in 
this  list,  such  as  "The  Seasons,"  original  after  Rosalba ; 
"Peace  and  Plenty,"  "finely  colored  and  beautifully 
ornamented;"  "Flora."  Scripture  and  heathen  myth 
ology  contributed  some  erotic  scenes :  there  was  Joseph 
and  Potiphar's  wife,  Venus  attired  by  the  Graces,  the 
blinding  of  Cupid.  This  catalogue  included  also  the 
letter  woman,  the  oyster  woman,  the  bathing  beauty, 
Miss  Yates  (a  famous  actress  of  the  day)  in  the  char 
acter  of  Electra,  and  a  lady's  maid  soaping  linen. 
Among  pictures  of  more  general  mention  were  land 
scapes,  views  of  capital  cities  in  the  Old  World,  Scrip 
tural  pieces,  sea  pieces,  sporting  pieces,  whale  fisheries, 
floral  sets  of  the  twelve  monthly  flowers  in  beautiful 
frames,  sets  of  nosegays,  sets  of  baskets  of  flowers, 
and,  finally,  a  series  of  engravings  designed  to  exhibit 
the  various  passions  of  the  human  soul  as  expressed  in 


168  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  countenance.  All  of  these,  together  with  a  variety 
lately  imported  of  the  most  elegant  engravings  and 
mezzotints  "by  the  greatest  artists  in  Rome  or  London," 
were  offered  for  sale  at  the  dealer's  new  exhibition 
room  in  our  Quaker  city,  besides  numerous  maps. 

Works  of  sculpture  adorned  to  some  extent,  in 
late  colonial  times,  the  homes  and  gardens  of  the  great 
and  opulent ;  and  these  in  like  manner  were  mostly  im 
ported.  George  Washington,  soon  after  his  wedding  to 
the  rich  widow  Custis,  sent  to  London  for  some  busts, 
through  his  business  agent  who  resided  there,  and  his 
personal  taste  inclined  to  images  of  conquerors  and 
men  of  action  in  preference  to  all  others.  Those  he 
selected  were  Alexander  the  Great,  Julius  Caesar,  Fred 
erick  of  Prussia,  Marlborough,  the  Prince  Eugene  and 
Charles  XII.  of  Sweden;  and  his  letter  to  the  agent 
specified  the  size  wanted,  which  was  to  be  after  a  certain 
precise  measurement.  "There  is  no  busts"  (sic)  wrote 
the  London  dealer  in  reply;  none  at  all  of  Charles  XII., 
and  as  to  the  others,  none  of  the  size  ordered.  To  make 
special  models  of  the  measurement  sent  would  cost  at 
least  4  guineas  each.  But  he  offered  to  supply  images 
of  the  desired  size  from  a  long  list  of  the  world's  great 
celebrities  in  philosophy  and  literature:  from  Homer, 
Virgil,  Cicero,  Plato  or  Aristotle  among  the  ancients, 
or,  among  modern  men  of  thought,  such  worthies  as 
Spenser,  Ben  Jonson,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Pope, 
Addison,  Dryden,  Locke  and  Newton.  Washington 
seemed  averse,  however,  to  substituting  such  models  for 
the  heroes  of  his  own  fancy,  and  the  business  was 
dropped.1 

On  the  whole,  Americans  of  that  age  were  utilitarian 
in  their  pursuits,  displayed  little  real  culture  or  taste 
12  Wash.  Writings  (Ford  ed.),  175- 


THE  FINE  ARTS  169 

in  art,  and  appeared  averse  to  spending  a  surplus 
upon  delicate  creations  of  the  brush  or  chisel.  The  bald 
Protestantism  of  their  religion,  withal,  kept  them  out 
of  sympathy  with  those  great  masters  of  Continental 
Europe  whose  inspiration  had  come  to  them  as  sub 
missive  children  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  For 
saints  and  Madonnas  the  Puritan  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  whether  here  or  abroad,  cherished  an  infinite  con 
tempt;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  Bostonians  only  a  few 
years  ago  became  casually  aware  of  the  coincidence  that 
the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  whose  recurring  anniversary 
they  had  been  celebrating  for  more  than  a  century,  was 
fought  on  the  day  of  St.  Botolph  (the  I7th  of  June), 
as  specified  in  the  old  church  calendar — that  patron 
saint  from  whom  English  and  the  Massachusetts  Boston 
had  successively  been  named.1  Even  the  heathen  deities 
of  Greece  and  Rome  had  then  a  far  better  show  for 
adornment  than  the  saints  and  martyrs  whom  Roman 
ism  had  canonized;  for  scholarship,  at  all  events,  rev 
elled  in  the  classics,  and  paganism  gave  us  no  offence. 


Now  and  here,  as  in  all  ages  and  areas  of  art,  the 
chief  interest  of  a  patron  was  in  having  his  own  like 
ness  taken,  and  well-to-do  Americans  employed  such 
artists  as  pleased  them  upon  the  portraits  of  their  pro 
lific  families.  Miniature  painters  came  over  from 
Europe  and  did  good  work  on  canvas  or  in  ivory,  which 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Revolution  have  preserved 
among  heirlooms  to  this  day.  "Limner"  was  a  favor 
ite  word  among  persons  of  fashion  and  affectation  to 


new  St.  Botolph  Club  of  that  city  undertook  to  make 
anniversary  celebration  of  the  day  of  its  patron  saint,  and  thus 
the  coincidence  was  discovered. 


170  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

denote  an  artist  who  took  people's  likenesses;  and  we 
see  a  "limner"  advertising  himself  in  the  local  press  as 
drawing  faces  in  crayons  for  two  guineas  each,  glass 
and  frame  included. 

But  America  had  already  given  birth  to  two  real 
artists  of  the  brush,  whose  fame  became  broadly  Euro 
pean  before  they  died.  John  Singleton  Copley  and  Ben 
jamin  West  belonged,  the  one  to  the  Massachusetts 
province  and  Boston,  the  other  to  Pennsylvania  and  the 
suburbs  of  Philadelphia.  West,  though  somewhat  the 
younger  of  the  two  in  years,  was  the  earlier  to  achieve 
a  reputation;  and  when  established  in  London,  he 
aided  his  fellow-countrymen,  Copley,  to  find  a  foot 
ing  there.  Each  forsook  America  to  gain  a  European 
training  for  his  art ;  and  Revolution,  instead  of  enlist 
ing  him  for  its  cause,  served  to  confirm  him  in  residing 
abroad  as  a  loyal  British  subject  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 
West  rose  to  high  influence  among  the  English  of  his 
profession,  and  became  president  of  the  Royal  Academy 
as  successor  to  the  great  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds;  while 
Copley  reared  upon  British  soil  a  family  which  gained 
lineal  distinction  in  law  and  politics  after  his  own  death. 
West  brought  elevation  of  mind  to  his  profession  and 
sought  for  his  brush  grand  subjects,  Scriptural  and 
historical,  requiring  a  wide  breadth  of  canvas.  Him 
Byron  lampooned  as 

"...  West, 
Europe's   worst   daub  and  England's   best." 

But  such  detraction  must  have  been  due  to  the  antip 
athy  which  that  errant  poet  felt  toward  one  who  was  his 
opposite  in  morals  and  conventional  attitude.  West's 
lofty  style  of  treatment  is  rarely  emulated  at  the  pres 
ent  day;  but  his  "Death  of  Lord  Chatham"  and  "Christ 


THE  FINE  ARTS  171 

healing  the  Sick"  were  long  admired.  A  replica  of  the 
latter  picture,  which  he  gave  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hos 
pital  in  1817,  to  be  placed  upon  exhibition,  long  yielded 
that  institution  a  handsome  income.  Copley's  fame,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  that  essentially  of  a  portrait  painter, 
and  the  native  press  used  often  to  refer  to  him  as  "our 
American  limner."  His  portraits  of  the  great  person 
ages  of  colonial  and  Revolutionary  times,  men  and 
women  in  and  about  Massachusetts  Bay,  endeared  him 
closely  to  the  land  he  had  left  behind  and  kept  posterity 
familiar  with  him.  None  of  the  choice  minutiae  of  dress 
or  feature  escaped  his  artistic  eye,  and  the  rich  rustling 
of  silks  and  brocades  seemed  almost  literally  transferred 
to  his  canvas. 

There  were  other  American  painters  of  younger  re 
nown  in  this  and  the  succeeding  era  of  American  inde 
pendence  and  union,  and  some  of  them  studied  abroad 
as  pupils  of  West.  For  Europe  afforded  the  field  for 
study  and  patronage  to  artists.  The  ingenious  and 
versatile  Charles  W.  Peale,  a  native  of  Maryland, 
painted  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  1772,  that  early  portrait 
of  Washington  which  shows  him  at  three-fourths 
length  in  the  colonial  uniform  of  a  regimental  colonel. 
Gilbert  Stuart  of  Rhode  Island,  after  studying  abroad, 
returned  home  to  gain  fame  as  a  portrait  painter  long 
after  the  Revolution  was  over,  and  the  favorite  portrait 
of  Washington's  latest  prime  was  by  him.  Washington 
Allston  of  South  Carolina,  who  in  the  choice  of  sub 
jects  resembled  West  once  more  and  lived  abroad,  was 
but  a  babe  when  the  British  invaded  his  native  soil; 
while  John  Trumbull  of  Connecticut  served  as  a  young 
military  officer  of  the  Revolution  before  he  went  to 
London  to  study.  Trumbull  (who,  by  the  way,  must 
not  be  confused  with  the  political  poet,  John  Trumbull, 


AMERICANS  OF  1776 


his  contemporary,  also  of  good  Connecticut  stock1)  was 
ambitious  to  shine  as  a  painter  of  historical  subjects; 
and  he  alone  of  those  I  have  mentioned  seems  to  have 
followed  the  advice  of  Chastellux,  to  let  the  love  of 
America's  great  worthies  and  the  commemoration  of 
the  great  battles  and  scenes  in  which  American  heroes 
had  participated  attract  them  to  subjects  worthy  the 
gratitude  of  their  countrymen. 

American  sculptors  belong  to  times  still  later;  and 
of  these,  Greenough  and  Crawford,  perhaps  the  earliest 
in  genuine  repute  among  them,  found  their  instruction 
in  Continental  Europe.  Houdon,  the  French  sculptor, 
visited  the  United  States  under  the  patronage  of  Frank 
lin,  and  made  the  famous  marble  Washington  which 
still  adorns  Virginia's  State  House  at  Richmond.  In 
William  Rush  of  Pennsylvania,  a  native-born  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  America  had  an  excellent  ship 
carver,  but  no  more. 


Architecture,  practical,  prosaic  and  yet  comprehensive 
among  the  fine  arts,  must  in  some  rude  form  or  another 
have  engaged  Americans  thus  early.  Yet  the  best 
artistic  talent  of  this  profession,  no  less  than  the  more 
finished  products  for  building  material,  came  from 
Europe;  and  there,  at  all  events,  was  the  place  for  an 
architect's  liberal  training.  Many  of  our  finer  dwelling 
houses  belong  to  the  last  years  of  the  colonial  period. 

So,  too,  in  music,  instructors  or  performers  who  made 
this  art  a  source  of  livelihood  in  America  were  mostly 
of  foreign  importation  during  our  colonial  epoch.  But 
of  native  amateur  musicians  there  were  some;  and 
Jefferson,  to  an  extent  that  few  readers  of  history 

*Anle,  p.  128. 


THE  FINE  ARTS  173 

realize,  partook  when  young  of  such  diversions  from 
his  dry  professional  work  in  law  and  politics.  The  new 
"forte  piano,"  so  called,  charmed  him  as  a  melodious 
invention ;  and  having  ordered  a  clavichord  from  Phila 
delphia  as  a  gift,  he  wrote  in  June,  1771,  to  the  dealer 
to  send  this  other  instrument  in  its  place.1  "Music," 
avows,  in  1778,  this  author  of  the  Declaration,  "is  the 
favorite  passion  of  my  soul;  but  fortune  has  cast  my 
lot  in  a  country  where  the  art  is  in  a  state  of  deplorable 
barbarism."  Some  of  his  servants  were  detailed  as 
musicians  while  he  was  governor  of  Virginia,  but  his 
means,  to  his  great  regret,  did  not  admit  of  a  band  for 
performances.  Singular  is  it  that  men,  the  most  illus 
trious  in  achieving  for  their  own  age  and  posterity,  have 
cherished  dreams  of  indolence  and  fond  seclusion  in  the 
midst  of  their  immortal  task,  solacing  their  immediate 
labors  by  visions  of  the  future  illusory  as  a  rainbow. 
Two  things  were  in  Jefferson's  private  thoughts  in 
1775,  soon  after  Bunker's  Hill  was  fought:  first,  he 
wished  a  restitution  from  Great  Britain  of  our  just 
rights;  next,  to  retire  from  the  public  stage  and  pass 
the  rest  of  his  days  in  domestic  ease  and  tranquillity, 
banishing  every  desire  of  hearing  what  went  on  in  the 
world.2 

*I  Jefferson's  Writings,  395.  In  this  same  letter  he  orders  "a 
large  umbrella  with  brass  ribs,  covered  with  green  silk  and 
neatly  finished." 

2I  Jefferson's  Writings,  482. 


XIII 

PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE 

PHILANTHROPY— a  love  of  our  fellow-men 
conjoined  with  the  fervent  wish  to  do  them 
good — finds  its  most  perfect  fruition  in  this 
life  under  the  benign  influence  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  the  teachings  of  a  Divine  Master.  The  best- 
ordered  schemes,  moreover,  of  Christian  benevolence 
and  endeavor  spring  up  in  the  hearts  of  a  community 
who  recognize  the  brotherhood  of  the  whole  human 
race  and  tend  in  their  institutions  to  equality  of  con 
dition,  discouraging  among  themselves  all  arrogance 
of  class  privilege  and  distinction  founded  in  pedigree 
or  wealth,  and,  still  more,  that  oppression  of  weaker 
races  which  feeds  the  pride  and  avarice  of  the 
stronger. 

Private  munificence  has  worked  out  far  more  splen 
did  results  in  the  United  States  during  the  last  hundred 
years,  under  a  voluntary  system  for  relieving  want  and 
suffering,  than  ever  rulers  or  the  governing  power  alone 
could  have  accomplished  through  systems  of  tithe  or 
taxation.  Yet  organized  charity  had  not  far  advanced 
by  the  Revolutionary  age,  whether  in  public  or  private 
means  of  relief.  The  imperfect  systems  of  the  mother 
country  were  ours,  but  with  a  far  narrower  range  of  ap 
plication;  and  progress  was  very  slow  toward  com 
bining  States  or  colonies  into  united  continental  action. 
Charity  for  local  or  provincial  objects  seems  to  have 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     175 

been  fitful  and  spasmodic  rather  than  systematic.  But 
when  Boston  was  harassed  by  the  port  bill,  in  token  of 
the  king's  displeasure,  other  towns  in  Massachusetts 
and  the  sister  colonies  hastened  with  spontaneous  relief. 
It  was  less  in  money,  however,  that  relief  was  fur 
nished  than  in  native  produce.  Contributions  in  July, 
1774,  and  thereabouts  came  in  coastwise  sailing  vessels 
by  way  of  Marblehead.  Maryland  set  a  good  example; 
from  Baltimore  came  3000  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  20 
barrels  of  rye  and  21  barrels  of  bread;  and  from 
Annapolis,  1000  bushels  of  corn.  Boston  in  town  meet 
ing  gratefully  acknowledged  the  noble  sacrifice  thus 
made  of  a  remote  sister  colony's  staple  commodity. 
Among  the  local  Massachusetts  donations  for  Boston's 
sufferers  was  a  yoke  of  oxen. 


Hospitals  for  the  treatment  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
appear  to  have  been  established  in  India,  through  the 
influence  of  Buddhist  priests,  even  before  the  birth  of 
Christ ;  and  it  is  alleged  that  ancient  Greece  and  Rome 
supported  like  establishments.  But  such  institutions 
the  world  over  are  mainly  the  offspring  of  Christianity, 
and  in  Christian  countries  seeking  to  apply  to  mankind 
the  golden  rule  they  take  their  amplest  range.  Such 
hospitals  as  European  countries  maintained  in  the 
eighteenth  century  gave  general  clinical  treatment ;  while 
special  establishments  for  the  eye  and  ear,  for  children, 
for  women,  for  the  insane,  and  the  like,  had  as  yet  no 
distinctive  footing.  Nor  were  there  hospitals  of  the 
dispensary  order,  where  convalescents,  or  those  not 
wholly  confined  to  their  beds,  might  expect  relief  and 
attention.  And  again,  the  hospital,  like  its  counterpart, 
the  almshouse,  bestowed  most  of  its  work  thus  early 


176  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

upon  the  poor  and  needy,  or  upon  those,  at  least,  who 
presented  some  distinctive  claim  for  public  support.  At 
the  present  day  we  see  a  far  greater  and  more  com 
passionate  extension  of  such  privileges;  so  that  even 
the  sick  and  suffering  who  are  possessed  of  means  seek 
lodgings  upon  such  premises,  for  which  they  pay  dur 
ing  the  extremity  of  medical  treatment  or  a  surgical 
operation;  finding  in  the  ample  organization  of  a  hos 
pital  staff — surgeons,  physicians,  nurses,  attendants, 
with  fit  nourishment  and  due  and  constant  vigilance — 
comforts  and  an  appliance  of  skill  far  beyond 
what  would  be  possible  in  their  own  homes  at  such  a 
crisis. 

Two  hospitals  only,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  were 
fairly  and  fully  established  in  these  colonies  prior  to 
the  Revolution.  They  were  of  the  general  character  I 
have  described ;  one  of  them  was  in  Philadelphia  and  the 
other  in  New  York.  It  was  fit  that  the  earliest  of  such 
institutions  should  have  been  founded  by  Quaker 
benevolence  and  located  in  the  city  of  brotherly  love, 
foremost  at  that  time  in  population.  The  Pennsylvania 
Hospital  was  organized  just  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  though  earlier  efforts  had  been  made 
to  separate  such  work  from  the  city  almshouse,  where 
medical  treatment  was  bestowed  upon  the  sick  and  in 
jured.  The  name  of  Franklin  appeared  as  clerk  among 
this  hospital's  earliest  list  of  officers;  he  drew  up  its 
rules,  and  served  later  for  a  brief  space  as  president; 
but  men  locally  eminent  in  the  medical  profession  gave 
to  that  enterprise  its  strongest  direction.  The  Penn 
sylvania  Assembly  granted  in  1750-51  its  first  £2000, 
on  condition  that  a  like  sum  should  be  raised  by  private 
contribution.  Hence  this  important  foundation  was  the 
joint  product  of  public  and  private  charity,  and,  as 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     177 

stated  in  1755,  when  its  foundation  stone  was  laid,  it 
owed  its  existence  to  "the  bounty  of  government  and  of 
many  private  persons." 

The  second  of  our  native  hospitals  was  founded  in 
New  York  much  later,1  and  known  as  the  "New  York 
Hospital."  Its  site,  just  "out  of  town"  and  on  high 
ground,  was  judiciously  chosen,  and  hence  a  good 
money  endowment  was  secured.  Comprehensive  treat 
ment  was  afforded  at  both  the  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  hospitals  before  the  Revolution;  each  ward  had 
many  beds;  insanity  was  not  yet  specialized,  and  be 
sides  medical  treatment  in  general  diseases,  contagious 
or  otherwise,  surgery  was  applied  with  such  skill  as  the 
knowledge  of  the  times  permitted.2 

Efforts  —  not  very  successful  —  were  made  in  other 
American  centres  shortly  before  the  Revolution  to 
establish  good  hospitals.  In  1772  a  public  hospital  for 
idiots  and  insane  was  founded  by  the  General  Assembly 
of  Virginia  at  Williamsburg.  At  Boston,  in  1765  or 
thereabouts,  a  town  meeting  publicly  accepted  a  liberal 
donation  of  £600  under  the  will  of  that  generous  bene 
factor,  Thomas  Hancock,  toward  erecting  a  hospital  for 
the  insane  ;  but  no  such  institution  appears  to  have  been 
in  successful  operation  until  after  the  war. 


In  1771. 

2The  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  up  to  the  outbreak  of  Revolution, 
was  partially  supported  from  charity  boxes  ;  there  were  also 
irregular  contributors,  besides  specific  endowments  by  gift  and 
legacy.  Some  revenue  was  derived  from  an  exhibition  of  ana 
tomical  paintings  and  casts  donated  to  the  hospital.  From  the 
much  later  gift  of  Benjamin  West  (ante,  p.  171)  it  is  said  that 
nearly  $20,000  were  realized  in  the  aggregate,  this  picture  being 
likewise  placed  on  exhibition.  A  report  for  the  year  1772  shows 
that  492  poor  and  diseased  persons  were  treated  here  —  among 
them  70  insane  —  and  that  242,  or  nearly  half,  were  discharged 
as  cured. 


178  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

In  dealing  with  the  infirm,  shiftless  and  indigent  of 
provincial  inhabitants,  such  as  require  not  hospital 
treatment  so  much  as  victuals  and  lodging,  colonial 
methods  copied  those  of  the  mother  country,  which 
were  rude  and  repulsive  enough.  The  lessening  of 
pauperism,  on  the  one  hand,  and  judicious  relief,  on  the 
other,  of  those  who,  from  one  cause  or  another, .  are 
found  unable  to  support  themselves  or  to  gain  assist 
ance  from  relatives,  becomes  a  burdensome  problem 
for  every  age  and  community  to  consider  and  apply. 
The  county  poorhouse  is  not  an  inspiring  theme  for 
description,  and  they  who  come  upon  the  public  for 
support  may  always  expect  coarse  fare  and  only  the 
barest  comforts  in  furniture  and  surroundings. 

Such,  perhaps,  is,  on  the  whole,  the  better  policy; 
discouraging  beggary  or  public  dependence,  as  a  rule, 
by  keeping  it,  in  a  sense,  humiliating  and  comfortless. 
But  the  Pennsylvania  colony  set  a  notable  example  thus 
early  in  respect  of  her  own  paupers ;  and  in  Philadelphia 
might  be  seen  Quaker  almshouses  of  a  cosy  cottage 
pattern,  both  unique  and  attractive,  where  the  poor  and 
dependent  folk  were  lodged  somewhat  as  in  their  own 
private  homes.  A  home  for  every  family  was  the  ideal 
which  this  city,  and  Baltimore,  too,  strove  to  encourage, 
so  that  domestic  privacy  might  be  the  boon  of  the  poor 
est  and  humblest  of  the  community,  and  the  noisome 
pest  of  the  promiscuous  tenement-house  reduced  as 
much  as  possible. 

Pauperism  proves,  however,  a  difficult  problem  to 
deal  with  practically;  and  out-of-door  relief,  such  as 
specifically  encourages  the  maintenance  of  family  life 
among  the  miserable,  has  never  yet  worked  safely  clear 
of  that  other  method,  the  public  institution,  where  the 
dependent  poor  are  congregated  for  systematic  atten- 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     179 

tion  to  their  wants.  The  best  authorities  of  our  own 
day  argue  that  both  methods  should  be  applied  together, 
according  to  the  local  conditions,  especially  in  large 
communities;  and  furthermore,  that  the  charity  dis 
pensed  by  public  and  private  benevolence  should  be  of 
an  associated  and  co-operative  kind.  While  secret  and 
partial  relief  may  in  various  and  deserving  instances 
enable  our  struggling  fellow-creatures  to  maintain 
themselves  in  life,  nature  inclines  mankind  so  readily  to 
eat  the  bread  of  idleness  when  the  way  is  smooth  in 
that  direction  that  the  dread  of  public  segregation  and 
a  public  poorhouse  proves  a  needful  stimulant  to  family 
and  individual  exertion.  Private  charities  were  not 
greatly  organized  in  America  in  our  Revolutionary  age ; 
nor  had  vagrancy  and  beggary  any  such  strong  footing 
among  our  people  as  in  the  Old  World.  The  whole 
trend  of  our  busy  colonial  life  and  independent  civiliza 
tion  notably  opposed  such  conditions. 

The  English  law  in  respect  of  private  support  applied 
largely  to  these  thirteen  colonies.  Wherever  a  husband 
was  capable  of  providing  the  necessaries  of  his  wife  and 
young  children  he  was  bound  to  do  so,  and  his  credit 
might  be  pledged  for  such  support  if  he  proved  person 
ally  remiss  in  his  duty  as  head  of  the  house.  The 
statute  of  Elizabeth,  moreover,  compelled  adult  chil 
dren  to  support  their  dependent  parents,  and  competent 
parents  to  support  adult  dependent  children;  it  even 
required  capable  brothers  and  sisters  to  provide  for  each 
other  in  distress — to  the  extent,  at  all  events,  of  keeping 
such  a  family  from  becoming  a  public  charge.  And 
thus  were  the  English  ties  of  family  and  consanguinity 
set  toward  the  abhorrence  of  pauperism  and  public  de 
pendence,  even  where  the  safeguard  of  family  pride  or 
affection  might  be  wanting.  Among  our  primitive 


i8o  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

colonists,  although  organized  charities  were  yet  want 
ing,  townspeople  combined  for  the  special  relief  of  some 
neighbor  in  distress,  while  the  church  congregation  and 
its  ministers  aided  the  sick  and  suffering  of  the  little 
flock.  In  Boston,  quarterly  charity  meetings  were  held 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  the  sermon  was  followed  by  a  col 
lection  for  the  poor.  There  were  regular  overseers, 
chosen  by  the  voters,  and  winter  contributions  of  wood 
were  distributed  among  the  industrious  poor.  In  Phil 
adelphia,  in  1772,  following  a  charity  sermon  which 
was  preached  for  the  benefit  of  the  prisoners  and  other 
distressed  poor,  the  sum  of  £27  73.  5d.  was  collected, 
and  large  contributions  were  added  of  victuals,  bedding, 
wearing  apparel,  fuel  and  other  supplies;  all  of  which 
were  sent  to  prisoners  in  the  jails,  many  of  whom  were 
imprisoned  debtors. 

While  in  Philadelphia  the  Friends  early  maintained 
almshouses  for  Quakers  only,  a  public  almshouse  was 
established  about  1730.  The  Philadelphia  Almshouse 
of  1732  was  probably  the  first  one  in  this  country, 
though  others  followed  in  Boston  and  other  chief  seats 
of  population.  Such  houses  developed,  according  to 
the  public  need,  new  or  additional  buildings  and  specific 
objects.  The  great  increase  of  foreigners  and  penniless 
strangers  with  their  families  who  were  stranded  by 
immigration,  to  linger  where  they  arrived,  made  all  this 
quite  needful  at  our  chief  Atlantic  seaports.  In  Phila 
delphia,  before  1740,  sick  emigrants  arriving  in  Phila 
delphia  wTere  placed  in  empty  houses  about  the  city, 
and  medical  treatment  was  provided  for  them  at  the 
city's  expense.  Sometimes  diseases  spread  into  the 
neighborhood  in  this  way ;  hence  the  erection  of  a  pest- 
house  in  1742  on  a  neighboring  island.  Philadelphia's 
poor  rates  were  high;  there  were  many  vagrants  in 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     181 

those  days  who  lived  by  begging  and  stealing;  and 
tramps  were  lodged  in  the  "house  of  employment"  and 
made  to  work,  whose  expense  of  maintenance  was  large, 
besides  the  sums  paid  to  out-pensioners.  In  Boston,  as 
in  other  of  our  large  towns  or  cities,  schemes  were 
devised  for  employing  the  poor,  young  or  old  of  both 
sexes,  rather  than  leaving  them  entirely  dependent. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  every  age  the  influence  of 
heredity  as  inducing  habits  of  shiftlessness  and  public 
dependence.  In  the  workhouse  of  Marblehead,  Massa 
chusetts,  in  1770,  might  be  seen  one  great-grandmother, 
two  grandmothers,  three  mothers,  three  daughters,  two 
grandchildren  and  one  great-grandchild — in  all  only 
four  persons. 


How  rough  was  the  penal  discipline  of  this  age  may 
be  readily  inferred  from  what  I  have  said  of  runaway 
slaves  and  servants.1  His  Majesty's  jails  and  prisons, 
whether  at  home  or  in  distant  dominions,  were  houses 
of  torment  rather  than  of  correction,  for  the  aim  of 
society  was  not  to  reform  so  much  as  to  inflict  punish 
ment  and  retribution.  Look  at  Hogarth's  pictures  of 
contemporary  London  life,  where  imprisoned  women 
were  set  to  work  under  the  uplifted  rod  of  the  brutal 
taskmaster;  where  the  vilest  of  men  malefactors  were 
herded  with  young  transgressors;  where  the  gallows- 
tree  showed  over  the  Thames  its  hanging  skeleton; 
where  the  ride  to  Tyburn  to  be  executed  was  in  the 
presence  of  an  unseemly  mob ;  and  where,  too,  the  in 
sane,  failing  of  discriminating  treatment,  whether  in 
the  criminal  or  the  innocent  pauper  class,  raged  about 
in  bedlam  like  wild  animals,  the  raving,  the  elated,  the 

lAntef  p. 


182  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

harmless  and  the  besotted  ranging  about  together  in 
adjacent  rooms  as  though  abandoned  by  the  wholesale 
to  a  hopeless  hell. 

The  sanitary  arrangements  of  British  prisons  in  those 
days,  at  home  or  in  the  colonies,  were  vile,  the  cells 
unfit  for  decent  habitation,  and  abuses  were  constantly 
invited  in  the  abominable  system  of  fees  and  perquisites 
to  the  jailers,  whereby  a  prisoner's  treatment  and  ac 
commodation  must  have  largely  depended  upon  the 
money  he  might  be  able  to  command  and  bestow  upon 
his  keepers.  It  was  not,  in  fact,  until  1773  that  John 
Howard,  as  high  sheriff  of  Bedfordshire,  began  his 
systematic  studies  of  prison  reform,  and  entered  upon 
that  "circumnavigation  of  charity"  which  endeared  him 
to  after  generations  as  the  prisoners'  friend.  His  first 
great  work  on  the  reformation  of  prisons  was  published 
in  1777,  while  these  distant  colonies  were  in  desperate 
fight  for  their  liberties.  "He  has  visited  all  Europe," 
said  Burke  eloquently  in  1780,  "not  to  survey  the 
sumptuousness  of  palaces  or  the  stateliness  of  temples, 
.  .  .  not  to  collect  medals  or  to  collate  manuscripts, 
but  to  dive  into  the  depths  of  dungeons,  to  plunge  into 
the  infection  of  hospitals,  to  survey  the  mansions  of 
sorrow  and  pain,  to  take  the  gauge  and  dimensions  of 
misery,  depression  and  contempt,  to  remember  the  for 
gotten,  to  attend  to  the  neglected,  to  visit  the  forsaken, 
and  to  compare  and  collate  the  distresses  of  all  men  in 
all  countries." 

Repression  and  retribution  were  the  penal  objects 
proposed  in  those  clays;  not  reformation.  Some  have 
observed  further  that  the  jail  or  prison-house  down 
nearly  to  the  nineteenth  century  was  largely  for  deten 
tion  in  those  days,  preparatory  to  one's  trial  or  the  inflic- 
*2  Burke's  Works,  387. 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     183 

tion  of  some  more  positive  punishment ;  that  imprison 
ment  for  a  specific  term,  as  such,  was  not  customary. 
And  indeed,  when  we  reflect  how  many  of  the  lesser 
crimes,  such  as  burglary,  horse  stealing,  forgery  and 
counterfeiting,  were  punished  by  the  death  infliction — 
and  not  murder,  manslaughter,  treason  or  highway 
robbery  alone — a  prison  must  have  been  to  many  of  the 
law's  victims  but  the  half-way  house  to  extreme  torture. 
Then  for  a  minor  summary  discipline  stood  the  stocks, 
the  pillory  and  the  whipping-post.  Banishment  to  these 
and  other  British  colonies  was  still  another  final  ex 
piation  for  crimes  in  the  mother  country.  Yet  punish 
ment  by  a  long  and  lingering  confinement  within  prison 
walls,  as  in  itself  a  means  of  wreaking  arbitrary  ven 
geance  or  of  putting  a  victim  conveniently  out  of  one's 
way,  has  well  been  understood  in  all  ages  of  mankind ; 
as  France's  bastille,  the  Tower  of  London  and  the  dun 
geons  of  mediaeval  castles  testify.  Prisoners  of  war 
and  of  state  might  thus  be  held  for  ransom,  or  for  some 
other  ulterior  advantage  to  those  who  held  them  in 
stealthy  confinement.  Even  imprisonment  for  debt  had 
largely  for  its  object  a  private  creditor's  revenge,  in 
expectation  that  the  friends  and  family  of  the  unfortu 
nate  one  might  be  rallied  in  distress  to  get  him  released 
at  their  own  impoverishment. 

Our  British  colonists,  especially  in  their  sparser 
settlements,  treated  public  wards  after  a  promiscuous 
fashion,  as  the  limited  means  and  knowledge  of  the 
times  suggested;  and  public  institutions,  such  as  they 
were,  gave  little  opportunity  for  the  public  to  separate 
criminals  from  the  pauper  objects  of  charity — the  sick 
and  the  simply  dependent.  Almshouses  and  prisons  in 
so  primitive  a  condition  were  of  local  necessity  com 
bined  or  contiguous  dwellings.  In  our  more  populous 


1 84  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

towns  might  be  seen  a  Bridewell  for  the  detention  and 
confinement  of  the  disorderly;  a  workhouse  where  the 
shiftless  and  vagrant,  when  able-bodied,  were  set  to 
doing  something  to  earn  a  support;  while  the  alms- 
house,  near  by  or  under  the  same  roof,  received  con 
firmed  and  helpless  paupers,  with  only  a  reluctant  sepa 
ration  of  the  insane  after  such  public  quarters  became 
overcrowded.  Filth  or  bad  ventilation  was  a  frequent 
complaint;  but  until  a  later  age  reform  came  slowly 
enough;  for  the  better  class  of  society,  avoiding  such 
purlieus,  confided  in  the  selectmen  or  overseers,  and 
desired  to  be  somewhat  in  ignorance  of  what  went  on 
there.  The  pound  for  stray  animals  was  a  place  of  con 
venient  detention  for  the  brute  creation;  and  so,  too, 
his  Majesty's  jails  themselves  were  largely  in  demand 
for  the  apprehension  and  detention  of  slaves  and  in 
dentured  servants  of  whatever  color,  those  human  chat 
tels  and  runaways  with  a  price  set  upon  them. 

The  Quaker  spirit,  observes  our  historian  Fiske,  was 
admirable  in  dealing  with  pauperism  and  crime  in  this 
colonial  age,  though  the  ideal  of  Pennsylvania  could  not 
yet  be  realized  for  confining  the  death  penalty  to  murder 
and  treason.1  This  commonwealth,  I  may  add,  after 
freedom  and  continental  union  had  become  secure,  led 
America,  and  one  might  say  the  world,  in  new  schemes 
for  making  the  prison  a  place  not  of  punishment  only, 
but  of  reformation. 


It  has  been  remarked — and  truthfully,  too — that  the 
diseases  of  a  people  are  modified  from  generation  to 
generation  by  their  changing  habits  of  life.  To-day  the 
extreme  tension  of  living  produces  brain  and  nervous 

and  Quaker  Colonies,  326. 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     185 

disorders;  but  it  was  not  so  in  our  Revolutionary  era, 
when  out-of-door  pursuits  modified  of  necessity  the 
monotony  of  intellectual  labor,  and  few  found  the 
mental  strain  incessant,  whether  in  business  or  social 
occupation.  Life  in  the  free  open  air  brings  cheerfulness, 
and  where  families  are  large  one  seldom  gets  lonely. 
The  chief  casualties  in  colonial  America  were  those  of 
undue  physical  exposure  or  imprudent  regimen ;  added 
to  which  were  such  epidemics  as  smallpox  or  yellow 
fever,  which  failed  of  skilful  personal  treatment  or 
spread  their  germs  of  contagion  for  want  of  sanitary 
measures  of  general  precaution.  Large  families  were 
gathered  in  a  home;  but  the  home  life  itself  was 
chiefly  in  the  country,  or,  at  least,  where  dwelling 
houses  were  built  quite  apart.  Such  farmer's  chores, 
as  plowing,  reaping  and  woodcutting,  may  well  supply 
a  bodily  substitute  for  the  gymnasium ;  distant  vacation 
trips,  inland  or  over  the  seas,  are  not  needful  to  those 
who  walk,  ride,  row  or  sail  about  their  wild  domains 
in  the  ordinary  discipline  of  life ;  nor  are  costly  out-of- 
door  sports  needful,  like  polo,  golf  or  tennis,  where  the 
constant  daily  routine  is  that  of  physical  exertion. 

In  this  earlier  age,  however,  people  who  dwelt  remote 
from  large  towns  suffered  for  want  of  skilled  surgeons 
or  physicians  in  a  sudden  emergency.  Their  whole 
some  life  in  the  open  air,  with  its  robust  pursuit  of  in 
dustry,  did  much  to  keep  them  in  normal  good  health ; 
and  these  ancestors  of  ours  were  indeed  a  tough  and 
hardy  race  of  men  and  women.  But  when  casualty 
came,  or  a  severe  illness,  death  followed  all  too  surely, 
because  of  ignorant  treatment  in  such  a  case,  or  of  no 
treatment  at  all.  It  was  not  until  1760,  writes  the 
learned  Dr.  Ramsay,1  that  the  Carolinas  undertook  to 
J2  Ramsay's  South  Carolina. 


186  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

settle  doctors  of  medicine  in  their  midst,  or  even  to  raise 
them ;  but  by  that  time  a  medical  school  was  set  up  at 
Philadelphia,  such  had  become  the  stress  of  the  situa 
tion,  and  young  men  of  our  colonies  began  going  there 
to  learn  the  rudiments  of  the  healing  art. 

Impudent  quackery  imposed,  meanwhile,  upon  the 
simple  and  credulous  of  our  common  people,  as  it  doubt 
less  will  to  the  end  of  time.  One  travelling  aurist  and 
oculist  is  seen  puffing  through  the  colonial  press  his 
arrival  in  a  Northern  town ;  and  his  manifesto  parades 
a  learned  quotation  from  Cicero,  a  rhapsody  upon  the 
blessings  of  sight  and  hearing  vouchsafed  mankind  by 
Almighty  God,  and  a  pompous  list  of  the  various  dis 
orders  he  comes  prepared  to  cure.  It  was  common  for 
these  self-trumpeted  itinerants  to  proclaim  "no  cure, 
no  pay;"  or,  in  proof  of  moderation  and  philanthropy, 
to  offer  treatment  gratis  to  the  poor  at  certain  hours 
of  each  day.  Mr.  Watson,1  the  annalist  of  Philadelphia, 
mentions  an  empiric  in  that  city  who  advertised  in  those 
days  as  a  bleeder,  tooth  drawer  and  horse  doctor ;  and  he 
further  relates  that  in  1732  there  arose  much  excite 
ment  among  the  fashionable  of  that  city  over  a  self- 
styled  M.D.  who  professed  to  cure  toothache  by  ex 
tracting  a  worm  from  the  tooth. 

Surgery  in  our  colonies  fared  even  harder  than  the 
art  of  medicine,  and  mechanics  were  seen  applying  the 
rude  implements  of  their  humble  craft  to  relieve  the 
bodily  agony  of  some  neighbor.  American  ingenuity, 
however,  rose  often  to  such  occasions  where  no  pro 
fessional  skill  could  be  had.  Dr.  Ramsay  himself  saw 
in  his  day  a  South  Carolinian  whose  leg,  when  badly 

Watson's  Philadelphia. 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     187 

crushed,  had  been  amputated  some  ten  years  before  by 
an  uneducated  friend  with  a  common  knife,  a  carpen 
ter's  hand-saw,  and  tongs  heated  red  hot  to  staunch  the 
bleeding ;  for  no  surgeon  dwelt  at  that  time  within  sixty 
miles  of  the  sufferer.  At  continental  centres  like 
Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia  lived  good  sur 
geons  and  even  specialists  in  surgery,  some  of  whom 
performed  operations  of  a  delicate  and  difficult  nature 
with  high  success.  Such  men,  like  the  best  of  our 
physicians  in  America  down  to  the  Revolution,  had  for 
the  most  part  studied  their  profession  abroad.  But  how 
could  the  skilled  operator  deal  with  distant  patients, 
dangerously  disabled,  when  travelling  was  so  slow  and 
difficult?  Nor  in  these  days  was  there  ether  or  other 
anaesthetic  application  for  assuaging  pain.  No  wonder, 
then,  that  in  so  many  of  the  individual  accidents  of 
which  we  read  in  the  colonial  papers  speedy  death  or 
a  horrible  maiming  for  life  was  the  victim's  accepted 
fate.  The  present  worth,  too,  of  a  particular  life  had 
closely  to  be  considered;  and  the  young  children  of  a 
prolific  family  who  swallowed  pins  or  ate  poisonous 
berries  were  pretty  sure  to  die  in  consequence,  while  the 
superannuated  bore  his  fate  as  a  martyr. 

Medical  practice,  furthermore,  in  this  early  age  erred 
much  against  nature,  even  when  applied  with  all  the 
skill  that  experience  and  the  schools  could  muster. 
Upon  a  medical  theory,  since  discarded,  that  morborific 
matter  should  be  expelled  from  the  blood  as  the  primal 
cause  of  disease,  the  sick  patient  was  closely  confined 
to  his  room  to  sweat  out  his  disorder,  with  the  windows 
and  doors  closed  tight  and  all  fresh  air  excluded. 
Medicines,  too,  were  administered  in  excessive  quanti 
ties  with  that  same  end  in  view.  There  were  purges, 
vomits  and  other  sweating  medicines ;  and  besides  such 


i88  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

remedies,  cupping,  bleeding  and  blistering  were  exter 
nally  applied  with  little  sense  of  discrimination.  For 
chills,  pleurisy  and  rheumatism,  the  lancet  was  freely 
used ;  and  Washington  himself,  there  is  good  reason  to 
believe,  perished  as  the  century  closed  rather  from  this 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  his  indiscreet  physicians  at 
Mount  Vernon  than  from  the  cold  he  had  caught,  which 
brought  them  to  his  bedside. 

Among  favorite  medicines  of  our  Revolutionary  age 
were  ipecac,  mercury,  opium,  bark  and  wine.  People 
dosed  themselves  freely  for  their  own  ailments,  and 
among  favorite  specifics  of  the  day  were  pills,  drops 
and  balsams  with  appropriate  trademarks.  Pokeweed 
was  used  as  a  cure  for  the  cancer.  Apothecaries  sold 
both  native  and  imported  compounds,  and  rhubarb  was 
so  much  in  popular  demand  for  medicine  that  grocers 
as  well  as  druggists  supplied  it  over  their  counters. 
Currents  of  cold  air  under  the  door  and  through  chinks 
and  window-sashes  in  the  wintry  weather,  before  the 
days  of  air-tight  stoves,  furnaces  and  steam  pipes  to 
take  off  the  chill  of  our  sleeping  rooms,  may  have  con 
siderably  offset  the  stifling  effect  of  those  pent-up 
chambers  and  curtained  beds  wherein  our  ancestors 
sought  repose,  strongly  prejudiced  as  they  were  against 
fresh  air  and  ventilation  as  a  safeguard  of  health.  And 
a  more  plentiful  use  of  pure  water,  externally  and  in 
ternally,  might  doubtless  have  checked  or  prevented 
many  diseases  which  gained  headway  among  them,  had 
aids  to  health  so  simple  been  popular  in  those  days. 
The  hygiene  of  clothing,  with  frequent  change  of 
apparel,  we  understand  much  better  to-day  than  did 
the  average  colonist,  who  usually  dressed  for  the  day 
when  he  dressed  for  breakfast.  Flannel  is  now  the  ap 
propriate  underwear,  as  it  was  not  in  those  days;  the 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     189 

fair  sex  have  discarded  whalebone  stays  and  tight 
lacing,  while  swaddling  bands  for  infants  have  ceased 
to  be  in  vogue. 

Among  diseases  familiarly  recited  in  those  days  were 
the  king's  evil,  running  evil,  dropsy,  bilious  cholic, 
cramps,  rheumatism,  bleeding  of  the  nose  and  sore 
eyes.1  Some  eye  disorders  came  from  the  flying  grains 
of  wheat  where  farming  was  carried  on  after  the  usual 
plain  and  toilsome  fashion.  A  distemper  once  afflicted 
the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland  known  as  "jail  fever," 
which  was  said  to  have  been  brought  over  by  prisoners 
on  board  a  convict  ship;  but  under  a  strict  quarantine 
it  presently  disappeared.  Yellow  fever  did  deadly 
havoc  in  Philadelphia  in  1749,  as  it  did  in  years  much 
later.  Malignant  fevers  in  our  towns  and  cities,  where 
the  population  lived  comparatively  close  together,  might 
often  have  been  traceable  to  imperfect  sanitation. 

Smallpox  was  a  scourge  of  our  thirteen  provinces, 
perhaps  the  most  fearful  of  all  in  contagious  spread, 
and  frequent  allusion  was  made  to  its  ravages  in  the 
press  of  these  late  colonial  times.  Slaves  and  bond 
servants,  in  fact,  were  held  at  a  stated  premium  who 
had  safely  gone  through  that  distemper ;  while  many  a 
runaway  was  published  for  identification  by  its  dis 
figuring  scars.  Philadelphia  had  a  smallpox  epidemic 
in  1 73 1 ;  Harvard  omitted  its  commencement  exercises 
some  thirty  years  later  because  of  a  like  disorder  which 
spread  at  Cambridge.  We  were  as  yet  far  from  Dr. 
Jenner  and  the  precaution  of  modern  vaccination;  but 
some  preventives  of  the  malady  were  in  special  vogue. 

1In  one  of  Franklin's  letters,  in  1773,  will  be  found  some  useful 
hints  about  taking  cold.  This  disorder,  he  writes,  which  is  ex 
pressed  in  English  and  no  other  language,  prevails  probably 
only  among  the  civilized. 


190  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Inoculators  in  those  days  loaded  their  patients  with 
mercury,  tortured  them  with  cruel  incisions  for  forcing 
in  extraneous  matter,  and  finally  nailed  blankets  over 
the  fast-closed  windows  to  exclude  fresh  air  from  them 
altogether.1  About  the  time  of  Boston's  troubles  with 
the  king,  smallpox  hospitals  were  set  up  in  Massa 
chusetts,  and  the  selectmen  of  various  towns  sought 
to  treat  the  disease  more  intelligently  than  before.  At 
one  of  these  establishments  bedding  was  so  scarce  in 
1776  that  patients  were  asked  to  bring  with  them  their 
own  supply  and  claim  a  corresponding  reduction  from 
their  board.  So  greatly,  indeed,  had  our  patriot  army 
in  that  vicinity  suffered  from  the  scourge  when  revolt 
became  Revolution  that  British  officers  were  charged 
with  spreading  it  purposely — a  false  report,  we  may 
well  presume.  So  when  Boston  was  at  last  relieved 
from  siege  and  the  redcoats  sailed  away,  its  selectmen 
dispatched  all  smallpox  patients  into  the  country,  as 
the  provincial  legislature  had  directed ;  and  in  the  pro 
gramme  arranged  for  Washington's  triumphant  entry 
into  the  town  only  councillors  "who  had  had  the  small 
pox"  were  allowed  to  appear  in  the  procession.2 


Travelling  in  colonial  times  was  too  costly,  too  slow 
and  too  difficult  for  one  to  really  gain  the  change  and 
variety  of  scene  and  climate  that  at  the  present  day  is 
prescribed  so  largely  to  induce  convalescence.  One 
might,  to  be  sure,  tramp  into  the  backwoods,  camp  out, 
fish,  shoot  and  inhale  the  balsams  of  the  pine  forests ; 
but  such  trips  were  rather  for  the  hardy  and  vigorous, 
and  they  had  their  attendant  dangers.  The  youth  in 

*2  Ramsay's  South  Carolina. 
2M.  G.,  1777. 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     191 

feeble  health  took,  sometimes,  his  special  voyage  in  a 
merchant  vessel  to  the  Barbadoes  or  some  other  tropical 
port ;  but  little  comfort  could  be  had  in  such  water  craft, 
and  unless  nature  supplied  a  new  tonic,  one  might  be 
worse  for  the  long,  listless  and  tedious  exposure.  As 
our  inland  settlements  progressed,  however,  "mineral 
springs"  were  occasionally  found,  whose  medicinal 
waters  were  sought  by  the  fashionable  after  British 
precedent,  for  health,  and,  haply,  some  dawdling  social 
delights.  Chalybeate  waters  were  already  sold  to  some 
extent  in  the  suburbs  of  our  Quaker  metropolis;  and 
Philadelphians,  it  is  said,  were  greatly  stirred  in  1773 
over  the  accidental  discovery  of  a  so-called  mineral 
spring,  whose  bitter  virtues,  hailed  readily  as  medicinal, 
proved  owing  to  the  nauseous  remnants  of  a  sunken  pit. 
New  Englanders  about  1767  took  eager  interest  in 
proclaiming  their  new  mineral  spring,  opened  in  Staf 
ford,  Connecticut;  while  almost  simultaneously  was 
announced  from  the  New  York  province  another  heal 
ing  fountain  whose  wraters  gushed  somewhere  between 
Kinderhook  and  Albany.  The  more  remote  New  York 
spa  of  famous  Balston,  and  its  still  more  famous  rival, 
Saratoga,  had  yet  a  renown  to  gain;  but  for  two  or 
three  years  preceding  1770  Stafford  Springs  were  per 
haps  the  most  renowned  for  their  healing  properties  in 
all  our  northern  colonies.  The  same  potency  was 
claimed  for  those  waters  as  at  Tunbridge  and  the  other 
famous  resorts  of  the  mother  country;  they  had  an 
astringent  taste,  and  upon  analysis  were  found  im 
pregnated  with  iron  and  sulphur  in  fit  proportions.  All 
bodily  disorders  to  which  rlesh  was  heir  might  be  cured 
or  alleviated  by  copious  draughts  at  this  healing  source. 
Eminent  physicians  journeyed  specially  to  Stafford  in 
consequence  to  taste,  analyze  and  pronounce  expert 


192  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

opinion.  In  May,  1767,  a  stage-coach  and  wagon  set 
out  from  Boston  for  this  halcyon  resort,  its  passengers 
paying  five  dollars  each  to  be  carried  through.  Doctors 
gave  grave  caution  through  the  press  that  the  waters 
should  be  judiciously  imbibed  under  strictly  profes 
sional  direction.  While  public  excitement  was  at  its 
height,  a  shrewd  citizen,  it  is  related,  who  had  been 
hired  to  fetch  some  of  this  God-given  water  for  the 
relief  of  his  sick  townspeople  in  Connecticut,  retailed 
the  transparent  fluid  at  a  dollar  a  gallon  to  such  travel 
lers  as  he  chanced  to  meet  on  his  journey,  and  then 
refilled  his  cask  at  a  babbling  wayside  brook,  whose 
water  was  eagerly  drunk  by  his  patrons  at  home,  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  substitution;  and  it  did  them  a 
great  deal  of  good. 

In  1769,  at  Bristol,  near  Philadelphia,  was  built  a 
large  bath-house  over  a  local  chalybeate  spring,  whose 
waters  had  been  duly  recommended  for  invalids  by  the 
Philosophical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  And  in  1772 
we  see  a  sort  of  sanitarium  advertised,  situate  at  the 
end  of  a  pier  in  Perth  Amboy,  New  Jersey,  whose 
aggregation  of  luxuries  combined  to  invigorate  the 
weak  and  weary.  These  consisted,  as  its  manager 
specifically  explained,  in  a  room  for  dress  and  undress 
and  a  staircase  which  led  down  into  a  bathing  room 
accessible  to  the  ocean,  so  that  those  who  wished  might 
run  off  into  deep  water;  while,  furthermore,  only  two 
miles  away  was  a  mineral  spring  on  the  pattern  of  the 
German  spa,  whither  one  might  walk  for  a  healing 
drink  after  taking  (and  of  course  paying  for)  his  re 
freshing  bath. 

The  warm  springs  of  Virginia  were  not  unknown  at 
this  early  period.  Washington  visited  one  of  them  for 
his  health  in  August,  1761,  and  found  there  a  gathering 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  DISEASE     193 

of  about  two  hundred  people,  full  of  all  manner  of 
diseases  and  complaints.  The  journey  thither  was  a 
hard  one,  through  a  rugged  mountainous  country,  with 
trees  fallen  across  the  road,  which  for  the  final  twenty 
miles  was  almost  impassable  for  carriages.  The  place 
was  well  supplied  at  that  time  with  meat  and  pro 
visions;  but  visitors  had  to  provide  their  own  rude 
lodgings,  and  Washington's  party  lived  in  a  tent  pro 
cured  at  Winchester.  The  gain  he  received  from  the 
healing  waters  was  largely  neutralized  by  the  fatigue 
of  his  journey  and  the  weather.  Located  on  the  east 
declivity  of  a  steep  mountain,  and  enclosed  by  hills  on 
all  sides,  one  lost  here  the  rays  of  the  late  afternoon 
sun.1  Washington  at  that  date,  and  about  two  years 
after  his  marriage,  came  very  near  his  death  gasp,  as  he 
wrote  his  friends,  but  was  presently  on  the  road  to 
recovery.  Had  he  passed  away,  how  sadly  different 
might  have  been  our  country's  record  for  the  last 
twenty-five  years  of  that  critical  century. 

*2  Washington's  Writings,  180. 


XIV 

COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION 

IT  has  long  been  a  cardinal  maxim  in  America — and 
posterity  should  cherish  and  proclaim  the  fact— 
that  education  of  the  whole  people  is  the  funda 
mental  condition  of  our  civil  progress,  the  palladium  of 
our  liberties.  Knowledge  of  the  truth  that  makes  free 
promotes  in  any  commonwealth  or  nation  the  practice 
and  discipline  of  freedom.  Coeval,  therefore,  and  almost 
coincident  with  the  earliest  of  these  trans-Atlantic 
settlements,  developed  the  deep  and  pious  purpose, 
cherished  by  their  earnest  founders,  of  making  each 
citizen  here  a  unit  of  intelligence  and  usefulness  in  his 
community.  Not,  as  in  the  Old  World,  were  the  con 
cerns  of  culture  and  learning  to  be  confined  to  a  priv 
ileged  class  or  order,  while  leaving  society  in  the  mass 
to  wander  in  the  bogs  of  superstition  and  ignorance, 
or  to  sink  into  pauperism  and  crime,  the  hopeless  de 
pendents  if  not  the  reprobate  foes  of  society. 

This  great  idea  of  a  general  social  intelligence  germi 
nated  in  the  minds  of  these  British  colonizers,  and 
perhaps  it  found  abroad  an  inspiration  in  Holland  and 
Protestant  Germany.  There  popular  education  had 
been  widely  favored  ;  yet  our  Anglo-American  ancestors 
moulded  their  institutions  for  themselves.  The  best 
and  speediest  fruition  of  such  a  scheme  in  colonial  times 
was  found,  perhaps,  in  the  New  England  'common 
wealths,  Massachusetts  Bay  leading  in  that  respect,  and 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    195 

originating  a  plan  for  her  neighboring  provinces  to 
emulate.  For  Massachusetts  was  settled  and  colonized 
by  men  of  the  middle  class  of  England — by  that  sturdy 
set  to  which  belonged  the  great  Milton  and  Newton 
in  the  mother  country;  and  their  homogeneousness  at 
the  start,  their  congenial  views  in  problems  of  Congre 
gationalism — "a  church  without  a  bishop  and  a  state 
without  a  king" — all  tended  to  make  them  denizens  of 
a  republic,  vigilant  and  inventive  for  the  common  good 
and  zealous  to  promote  a  civilization  of  the  highest 
order  consonant  with  the  shortcomings  of  human 
endeavor. 

Those  eastern  colonies  were  proud  of  their  common 
educational  system  by  the  time  that  separation  from 
the  mother  country  was  at  hand.  In  1771  we  see  a  New 
England  press  proclaiming  "the  glory  of  our  public 
schools,  the  foundation  of  rising  youth."  The  public 
school  system  of  our  twentieth  century — a  concern,  still, 
for  separate  commonwealths  of  America  to  build  up  and 
foster  locally,  but  vastly  developed  in  the  new  States 
and  territories  of  our  broad  domain  through  the  gener 
osity  of  Congress  and  the  nation  in  endowments  from 
the  public  land — takes  a  scope  far  more  comprehensive. 
That  system  of  the  present  age  extends,  in  some  West 
ern  State  jurisdictions,  to  offering  a  free  education  of 
sons  and  daughters  from  kindergarten  to  university, 
open  liberally,  supported  by  public  taxation,  and 
unsectarian.  And  now  is  inscribed  the  fundamental 
maxim  upon  the  massive  and  monumental  walls  of 
some  costly  public  building  for  posterity  to  ponder  over, 
"The  State  requires  the  education  of  the  people  as  the 
safeguard  of  order  and  liberty." 

Grund,  a  wise  and  profound  German,  who  travelled 
in  the  United  States  about  1830,  observed  the  differ- 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


196  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ence  which  then  distinguished  the  two  great  educating 
countries  of  modern  times,  as  a  result  of  their  different 
systems  of  popular  education  applied  to  peoples  differ 
ently  governed.  ''Germans,"  he  writes,  "are  the  best 
people  in  the  world  for  collecting  materials;  but  the 
Americans  understand  best  how  to  use  them."  And  to 
American  text-books  for  pupils  of  one  grade  or  another 
he  paid  a  deserved  tribute  for  their  excellence  of  prepa 
ration  and  adaptiveness.  Then  it  was  said,  as  perhaps 
it  might  be  to-day,  that  while  Europe  has  trained  pro- 
founder  scholars  than  the  United  States  in  one  branch 
of  learning  or  another,  not  a  European  nation  can  ex 
hibit  such  a  multitude  of  common  people  who  read, 
write,  cipher  and  show  familiarity  with  the  rudiments 
.  essential  to  an  intelligent,  practical  course  of  conduct. 
Of  the  American  common  school  as  we  find  it  to-day 
an  accomplished  writer  and  citizen  of  our  own  times 
pronounces  it  "the  most  original  and  vital  product  of 
the  national  life;"1  and  he  adds, moreover, what  is  both 
true  and  closely  pertinent,  that  our  common  school  has 
had  a  profound  influence  upon  the  government  and 
order  of  society  in  America  from  the  beginning  of  our 
colonial  life,  and  has  been  a  formative  power  in  the 
development  of  our  early  history  as  a  republic. 

Probably  the  United  Netherlands  w<ere  the  best 
schooled  population  in  Europe  during  the  seventeenth 
century.  But  New  England  and  her  English-speaking 
colonists  originated  their  own  independent  system  in 
that  respect  so  far  as  posterity  has  the  means  of  judg 
ing;  and  the  real  initiative  came,  not  from  the  May 
flower  pilgrims  of  1620,  who  had  sailed  from  Delft- 
haven,  and  hence  might  have  imbibed  Dutch  ideas,  but 
from  those  later  and  more  liberal  settlers  who  came 
*A.  D.  Mayo,  Report,  1893-94. 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    197 

direct  from  home  to  penetrate  the  wilderness  about 
Boston  and  the  north  shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  For 
in  1635  the  people  of  Boston,  in  town  meeting,  enacted 
a  law  establishing  a  public  school  "for  the  teaching  and 
nourishing  of  children."  In  1636  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  took  initial  steps  toward  establishing  the 
earliest  college  founded  in  America.  Next  after  Har 
vard's  safe  foundation,  and  while  the  various  towns 
of  that  colony  were  providing  for  their  separate  gram 
mar  schools  as  they  might,  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court  by  various  enactments,  and  particularly  that  of 
1647.  outlined  a  complete  system  of  popular  education 
for  the  colony — with  (i)  the  elementary  or  district 
school,  (2)  the  grammar  or  secondary  school,  and  (3) 
the  college  for  higher  learning — all  as  creations  by  and 
for  the  general  benefit  of  the  people,  to  be  supported 
by  the  contributions  of  parents,  the  gifts  of  private  bene 
factors,  and  grants  made  by  the  public,  all  together. 
Connecticut  in  1650  made  a  similar  provision.  At  the 
dawn  of  American  independence,  a  century  and  a  quar 
ter  later,  Connecticut  had  advanced  its  standard  for 
general  education  even  beyond  that  of  Massachusetts; 
and  these  two  colonies  led  all  the  thirteen  in  the  general 
enlightenment  of  its  youth. 


In  short,  except  perhaps  for  Rhode  Island,  the  scheme 
of  popular  education  was  constantly  fostered  through 
out  colonial  New  England.  Under  the  example  of 
Massachusetts,  towns  were  here  laid  out  after  a  general 
pattern,  which  brought  the  populations  compact  and 
close  together,  with  the  common  right  of  choosing 
deputies  to  the  legislature;  and  the  agreement  of  fifty 
or  sixty  families  to  build  a  church  and  support  a  min- 


198  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ister  and  schoolmaster  made  the  basis  of  their  incorpo 
ration  into  a  town.  A  town  with  a  hundred  families 
or  more  was  bound  to  set  up  a  grammar  school  and 
engage  an  instructor  competent  to  fit  youths  for  college. 
A  town  with  fifty  families  should,  at  all  events,  appoint 
one  to  teach  the  children  to  read  and  write;  and  in 
this  latter  provision  originated  the  familiar  district 
school. 

Dutch  settlers  of  New  York,  then  New  Amsterdam, 
had  received  injunction  from  the  states-general  of  Hol 
land  "to  find  speedy  means  to  maintain  a  clergyman  and 
a  schoolmaster,"  and  to  lay  a  local  tax  accordingly. 
This  was  done  about  1633,  an<^  the  New  York  colony 
established  accordingly  its  free  school.  Latin  was  pub 
licly  taught  under  the  rule  of  Peter  Stuyvesant.  But 
the  British  Government,  which  succeeded  in  1664,  gave 
to  the  system  of  that  colony  a  setback ;  the  more  so  since 
a  cardinal  point  was  now  to  supersede  a  Dutch  language 
and  Dutch  civil  and  religious  influences  by  loyalty  to  the 
British  Crown  and  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England.  In  Pennsylvania,  the  Quakers 
interested  themselves  in  free  education,  and  wealthy 
Philadelphians  left  money  to  aid  in  appropriate  endow 
ments.  But  the  want  of  a  homogeneous  township  sys 
tem,  as  in  New  England,  which  compacted  the  inhabi 
tants  and  stimulated  local  pride  and  the  local  interest— 
the  incongruous  character  of  these  middle  settlements — 
interfered  practically  with  all  such  establishments  while 
the  colonial  condition  lasted.  To  a  similar  want  of 
towns  and  a  closely  combined  population  was  added  as 
a  drawback  in  our  Southern  colonies  the  aristocratic 
structure  of  society  among  the  planters,  and  the  dis 
position,  even  in  county  matters,  to  keep  down  the  com 
mon  concerns  of  taxation  to  the  lowest  point.  Here, 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    199 

as  among  the  English-speaking  people  of  that  day 
everywhere  who  kept  to  the  ideas  of  the  mother  country, 
parents  were  permitted  to  bring  up  their  children  after 
their  own  discretion ;  and  the  education  of  youth,  relig 
ious  or  secular,  each  head  of  a  household  was  expected  to 
impart  for  himself  after  his  separate  means  and  ability. 
Governor  Berkeley's  famous  ejaculation,  which  has 
come  down  to  us  for  ridicule  through  the  centuries — 
"Thank  God,  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing"  in 
Virginia — befitted  an  age  when  English  nobles 
reasoned  that  the  common  people  ought  first  of  all  to 
submit  themselves  to  their  betters,  and  that  all  general 
spread  of  knowledge  meant  the  diffusion  of  heresy  in 
the  church,  disloyalty  to  the  king  and  perverse  diso 
bedience.  Even  among  intelligent  planters  themselves 
in  the  South  was  felt  the  dread  of  levelling  distinctions 
between  rich  and  poor.1  But  Jefferson  and  the  Revo 
lutionists  of  this  Southern  section  promoted  more 
liberal  views  among  their  fellow-citizens;  and  as  part 
of  a  charitable  establishment,  at  least,  the  education 
of  the  poor  and  humble  became  extended. 

Both  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  however, 
down  to  the  era  of  final  separation  from  England,  and 
so  long  as  the  influence  of  the  Crown  lasted,  schemes 
of  education  for  the  people  partook  to  a  considerable 
degree  of  the  nature  of  almsgiving  and  patronage,  so 
far  as  the  poor  man  and  his  children  were  concerned. 
For  their  so-called  "free  school"  was  one  in  which  the 
rich  of  the  community  or  men  of  moderate  means  paid 
tuition  for  their  children,  while  the  offspring  of  poverty 
were  admitted  without  charge,  if  at  all.  And  such,  to 
some  extent,  seems  to  have  been  the  situation  through 
out  our  colonies.  Gradually,  however,  in  all  America 
*2  Ramsay's  South  Carolina. 


200  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  standard  of  popular  education  was  raised  under  the 
instruction  of  teachers,  public  or  private,  whose  support 
came  by  one  means  or  another.  And  the  tuition  of  our 
youth  was  practical  in  its  scope,  and  what  was  taught 
was  taught  well.  "In  science,"  wrote  Jefferson  in  1785, 
"the  mass  of  the  people  of  Europe  is  two  centuries 
behind  us,  their  literature  half  a  dozen  years  before  us. 
We  know  books  really  good  which  sustain  themselves, 
but  are  meantime  out  of  reach  of  that  nonsense  which 
issues  from  a  thousand  presses  and  perishes  almost  in 
the  issuing." 


Here,  however,  we  should  also  observe  that  the  edu 
cation  of  youth  in  America  as  in  Europe,  during  most 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  subordinate  to  the 
supreme  work  of  preparing  the  soul  for  an  immortal 
existence — for  eternal  salvation,  in  the  hope  of  another 
and  a  higher  life  beyond  the  grave.  Learning  was  in 
those  days  the  recognized  handmaid  of  religion;  the 
instructor,  like  the  law  itself,  was  our  schoolmaster  to 
bring  us  to  Christ;  and  Protestantism,  though  less 
blindly  submissive  to  its  spiritual  guides  than  in  those 
European  countries  which  were  still  ruled  by  monastic 
orders,  was  nevertheless  exacting  in  its  tenets  and  dis 
cipline.  To  catechize  the  children  once  a  week — and 
every  Monday  to  go  over  the  points  presented  by  the 
Lord's-day  discourses  from  the  pulpit — was  habitual 
in  our  New  England  public  schools ;  nor  throughout  our 
colonies  in  those  days  was  it  deemed  a  bias  incompatible 
with  promoting  free  intellectual  growth  to  habituate  the 
young  when  brought  together  to  an  opening  prayer  and 
the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  All  such  instruction  be 
gan,  to  be  sure,  at  the  home  and  the  fireside,  as  it  always 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    201 

should;  and  in  each  family  group,  to  the  pious  and  con 
scientious  zeal  and  devotion  of  those  courageous  Chris 
tian  women  who  shared  the  hardships  and  privations  of 
our  pioneer  life  and  who  bore  and  brought  up  sons  and 
daughters  was  greatly  due  that  sturdiness  in  first  re 
ligious  principles  which  made  America  free.  To  render 
education  compulsory  in  effect  from  the  religious  stand 
point,  so  that  children  in  families  should  grow  up 
capable  of  reading  "the  Holy  Word  of  God  and  the 
laws  of  the  colony,"  was  proposed  in  Connecticut  as 
early  as  1650;  and  both  the  Massachusetts  and  Con 
necticut  codes  set  forth  early  the  open  Bible  in  English 
vernacular  as  the  compend  of  liberal  culture,  opposed 
to  the  practice  of  the  mediaeval  church;  "it  being  one 
chief  project  of  that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to  keep  men 
from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  as  in  former 
times  keeping  them  in  an  unknown  tongue."  And  since 
the  English  system  of  parochial  schools  committed  the 
work  of  popular  instruction  largely  to  the  ministers  of 
the  Established  Church,  so  in  this  country,  without  a 
church  establishment  at  all,  strictly  speaking,  did  the 
local  clergy  of  the  ruling  faith  of  each  colony  exercise 
in  those  early  times  a  considerable  supervision  over  the 
local  common  schools,  whether  as  committeemen  or 
pastors,  though  with  a  lesser  influence  than  abroad,  and 
liable  to  the  offset  of  dissenting  sects  in  the  community. 
Ere  the  present  day,  all  this  has  been  greatly  changed. 
In  our  modern  eagerness  to  avoid  all  possible  charge 
of  bringing  religious  prepossessions  to  bear  upon  a 
young  child's  mind,  we  tend  to  the  opposite  extreme 
of  paganizing  the  offspring  upon  whom  must  rest  in 
turn  the  full  responsibility  of  sustaining  or  destroying 
the  fabric  of  free  government.  Free  will,  free  choice 
in  concerns  of  the  human  soul,  does  not  draw  the  present 


202  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

line  at  sectarianism  only,  but  often  are  our  public  edu 
cators  forbidden  to  give  a  bias  to  Bible  teachings  or  to 
instill  into  the  youthful  mind  a  preference  for  Christian 
institutions.  In  its  effort  to  be  liberal  with  common 
school  standards  in  matters  of  the  conscience,  the  public 
will  dispense  with  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the  Scrip 
tures  when  youth  are  gathered  together  for  self- 
improvement;  so  that  among  all  great  works  of  liter 
ature  in  our  language,  the  one  ancient,  sublime  and 
indispensable  to  mankind  of  all  books  is  studiously 
avoided.  This  seems  neither  wise  nor  consistent  on 
our  part.  Is  not  the  child  biased  in  the  secular  studies 
of  life;  in  the  discoveries  and  even  the  speculations  of 
modern  material  science;  in  human  history,  economics, 
geography  and  the  facts  and  deductions  of  liberal  arts 
and  sciences  ?  Do  we  hesitate  to  mould  his  plastic  mind 
in  favor  of  his  country,  its  flag  and  its  political  insti 
tutions  and  ambitions?  Do  we  refuse  to  prejudice  his 
views  as  to  the  great  theories  of  human  speculation- 
Newton's  gravitation,  Darwin's  evolution,  Spencer's 
survival  of  the  fittest?  Do  we  refuse  to  display  the 
charts  of  the  starry  heavens,  contrived  for  us  by  the 
bold  astronomer,  who  views  that  vast  celestial  domain 
as  through  a  glass  darkly  and  not  face  to  face?  Igno 
rance  in  these  intelligent  times  is  in  some  respects  far 
more  reprehensible  than  a  possible  secondary  error; 
and  so  is  it,  as  it  seems  to  me,  with  regard  to  that 
knowledge  which,  rightly  bestowed,  should  fit  the  soul 
for  a  sweep  of  that  immortal  existence  to  which  this  life 
is  but  the  prelude — which  should  fortify  mortality  itself 
against  selfish  and  corrupt  indulgence  in  the  present  life 
and  make  it  strong  to  endure  whatever  bodily  ills,  trials 
and  vicissitudes  of  failure  or  misfortune  active  adult  life 
may  prove  to  develope. 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    203 

True  is  it,  however,  that  thus  far  in  our  national 
career  an  innate  desire  to  live  true,  moral  and  upright 
lives  seems  still  to  impel  youth  forward  in  the  right 
direction.  How  much  of  this  impulsion  comes  from 
heredity  and  the  religious  force  of  former  precedent  it 
would  be  hard  to  say.  But  personal  example  counts  for 
much  with  the  youth  of  every  generation.  And  much 
of  the  determining  influence  in  life  is  unconsciously 
exerted  for  good  or  evil  by  those  who  are  pursuing 
ideals  and  plans  of  their  own,  while  manifesting,  inci 
dentally,  their  belief  and  aims  to  those  about  them. 

With  due  provincial  variation,  the  range  of  common 
education  in  America  while  royalty  lasted  was  this  :  The 
education  of  the  child  began  at  home.  But  as  to  chil 
dren  past  the  age  of  tender  nurture,  neighbors  grouped 
together  and  afforded,  for  some  winter  weeks  at  least, 
a  training  in  the  primary  or  district  school.  For  this 
the  town  or  district  raised  as  it  might  by  taxation,  and 
beyond  this,  individual  gifts  or  tuition  charges  supplied 
the  needful.  If  an  outside  teacher  came  to  conduct  the 
school,  he  was  paid  to  some  extent  in  kind  and  not  in 
money  alone;  the  families  would  board  him  around 
among  themselves.  All  such  instruction  was  practical, 
being  chiefly  confined  to  the  rudiments  of  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic  and  to  encouraging  a  taste  and 
proficiency  in  the  English  mother  tongue.  In  the  Dutch 
schools  of  our  New  Amsterdam,  the  disposition  had 
been  to  put  boys  early  to  business.  In  the  great  farming 
communities  of  our  North-Atlantic  slope  children 
were  busily  employed  for  most  of  the  year ;  and  so  was 
it  with  the  sons  of  tradesmen  and  mechanics  soon  to  be 
apprenticed  out.  But  in  the  "free  school"  or  "grammar 


204  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

school"  proper,  wherever  it  might  flourish,  the  scheme 
of  studies  took  a  wider  range;  though  all  such  liberal 
tuition  was  rather  for  the  children  of  those,  prosperous 
or  ambitious  for  their  progeny,  who  meant  to  send  them 
to  college  and  fit  them  for  a  profession,  chiefly  for 
divinity.  This  "grammar  school"  broadened  conse 
quently  into  classical  instruction  in  Latin  and  Greek, 
besides  providing  the  higher  English  branches.  There 
were  "free  schools,"  so  called,  in  the  mother  country, 
the  most  notable  among  them  supported  by  endowments 
of  one  kind  or  another ;  but  on  the  soil  of  this  new  con 
tinent  sprang  up  these  grammar  schools,  modern  and 
spontaneous  in  their  origin,  and  maintained  not  by 
single  benefactors  so  much  as  by  the  people  themselves. 
Such  creations,  once  more,  were  sustained  by  all  the 
means  locally  obtainable,  public  or  private.  Few  if  any 
of  such  schools  could  rightly  be  called  "free,"  except  to 
the  children  of  the  poor.1  An  American  public  school 
at  our  present  day  is  the  possession  of  the  whole  people, 
built  and  maintained  usually  by  taxation  alone;  yet 
children  of  the  poor  and  untaxed  attend  it  with  no 
designation  apart  from  the  children  of  the  taxpaying, 
and  we  say  truly  enough  that  it  is  free. 

What  "free  school"  meant  in  the  seventeenth  century 
(observes  that  illustrious  educator,  the  late  Herbert  B. 
Adams)  was  free  in  the  sense  of  teaching  the  liberal 
arts  preparatory  to  college  training;  and  in  England 
and  her  colonies  free  schools  were  originally  synony 
mous  with  Latin  schools  or  grammar  schools.2  Con- 
franklin  took  but  one  short  term  at  the  Boston  Latin  (or 
"Grammar")  school,  and  he  lived  to  repay  his  native  town  a  thou 
sand-fold.  His  bronze  effigy  looks  this  day  upon  the  now  vacant 
lot  where  that  school  stood. 

2See    Educational    Series:     William    and    Mary,    etc.,    H.    B. 
Adams. 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    205 

sequently  the  high  school  or  academy — the  latter  word 
then  held  too  sacred  to  come  readily  into  use — was  a 
broadening  of  the  American  grammar  school,  so  as 
more  immediately  to  prepare  for  college,  the  primitive 
grammar  school  serving  rather  to  round  off  the  average 
youth's  education.1 

Thus  did  our  colonial  Latin  or  grammar  school  be 
come  "the  cornerstone  of  the  college  proper."2  Some 
of  our  American  colleges  carried  on  in  these  times  their 
own  grammar  or  high  school,  which  was  in  a  sense 
conjoined  with  the  college  itself,  and  served  as  a  feeder 
or  preparatory  annex  to  the  college.  Kings  (or 
Columbia)  had  such  a  seminary.  Princeton  was  thus 
supplied,  and  from  the  senior  class  of  its  grammar 
school  we  see  ten  admitted  in  1 772  to  the  freshman  class 
of  the  college  proper.  Philadelphia's  great  institution 
of  higher  learning,  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
originated  in  1740  in  a  charity  school.  From  thence 
sprang  up  an  "academy,"  nine  years  later;  from  the 
academy  a  college  in  1755 ;  and  that  college  during  the 
Revolutionary  War  grew  into  a  university,  the  first 
to  be  incorporated  in  the  whole  United  States  by  that 
supremely  dignified  title.  During  the  last  years  of 
colonial  rule,  the  Pennsylvania  College  and  Academy 
were  in  close  alliance,  and  together  asked  gifts  from  the 
public.  Franklin,  who  in  a  sense  was  chief  founder  of 
this  noble  and  expansive  institution,  wrote  of  it  in  1751 
that  the  academy  was  flourishing  beyond  expectation; 
that  it  had  already  more  than  one  hundred  scholars, 
and  constantly  increased  in  numbers.  It  was  served, 

lrThe  separation  of  "Latin"  and  English  high  school  is  of  post- 
colonial  date. 

2H.  B.  Adams.  Besides  religion  and  letters,  education  was  to 
be  "in  good  manners." 


206  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

he  said,  by  excellent  masters,  who  were  paid  good 
salaries;  by  a  rector,  who  taught  Latin  and  Greek;  a 
mathematical  professor  and  three  assistant  tutors.  The 
scholars  paid  each  £4  (or  $20)  a  year.1  Old  William 
and  Mary  had  also  in  colonial  days  a  grammar  school, 
whose  privileges  became  in  some  way  confounded  with 
those  of  the  college  proper,  much  to  the  disrelish  of 
baccalaureate  graduates.  Jefferson,  when  governor  of 
Virginia  during  the  Revolution,  caused  this  grammar 
school  to  be  abolished,  hoping  that  more  dignity  would 
be  given  thereby  to  the  college  course. 

The  native  bent  of  all  cis-Atlantic  education  in  those 
days,  so  as  to  give  to  our  settlers  the  rudiments  of  a 
good  English  training,  was  clearly  apparent.  To  make 
vernacular  scholars  of  the  rising  youth  was  strongly 
kept  in  view,  both  as  to  composition  and  oral  expres 
sion.  Franklin  wrote  with  pride  of  the  proficiency 
shown  at  Philadelphia's  "academy"  in  English  decla 
mation2 — a  practice  always  of  great  service  to  youth 
in  forming  taste  for  eloquence  and  pronunciation  upon 
the  best  models.  "We  have  little  boys  here  under 
seven,"  says  one  of  his  letters,  "who  can  deliver  an  ora 
tion  with  more  propriety  than  most  preachers." 


In  proof  of  the  universal  uplifting  sought  by  public 
educators  in  our  leading  provinces,  we  should  not  omit 
the  pains  taken — in  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  at  least— 
to  set  up  night  schools  for  affording  the  rudiments  to 
those  whose  days  were  too  much  occupied  to  yield  the 
usual  hours  for  tuition.  In  1769  the  opening  of  a  night 

*Yet  two  years  later  he  described  the  institution  as  consider 
ably  in  debt,  with  a  vacancy  in  the  rectorship  not  yet  rilled. 
22  B.   Franklin's  Works,  235,  242,  etc.    (i 751-53). 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    207 

school  was  announced  in  Philadelphia  at  the  Friends' 
public  schoolhouse,  to  instruct  youth  in  "reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic;"  and  this,  I  presume,  was  pro 
vided  at  the  common  cost.  In  Boston,  a  tutor  "in 
writing  and  arithmetic"  was  detailed  in  1772  to  attend 
every  school  at  6  o'clock  in  the  evening.  About  1733, 
Connecticut  foreshadowed  her  later  State  policy  of 
granting  public  lands  as  a  permanent  fund  for  educa 
tion;  and  not  only  did  this  colony  encourage  public 
schools,  but  it  discouraged  private  ones. 

In  America's  instruction  of  the  rudiments,  the  time- 
honored  dame  familiar  to  European  countries  seems  not 
to  have  figured  largely;  but  male  teachers,  young  and 
progressive,  imparted  to  pupils  still  younger  the  stimu 
lus  of  their  inspiration.  College  students,  in  fact,  or 
young  college  graduates,  wherever  the  sphere  of  col 
legiate  influence  might  conveniently  extend,  taught 
temporarily  in  the  rural  district  or  grammar  schools; 
and  in  so  doing  they  helped  out  the  needful  expense  of 
their  own  higher  education.  This  by  the  eighteenth 
century  was  largely  the  case  in  New  England,  where 
Harvard  and  Yale  long  arranged  the  midwinter  vaca 
tion  so  that  needy  sophomores,  juniors  or  seniors  might 
conveniently  absent  themselves  for  such  a  purpose, 
making  up  specially  when  they  returned  the  overlapping 
studies  of  the  year's  curriculum. 

As  for  the  famous  "district  school"  for  the  rudi 
ments,  it  has  travelled  far  and  wide  on  this  continent, 
as  the  tale  of  many  a  farmer's  son  or  pioneer  still  living 
may  remind  us.  The  old  red  schoolhouse  or  log  cabin, 
on  a  convenient  lot,  owned  by  the  rustic  community, 
and  opened  but  a  few  weeks  or  months  of  the  year, 
when  home  and  farming  work  is  dull  and  a  child's  labor 
may  be  spared,  has  given  the  mental  start  in  life  to 


208  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

many  a  rural  American  ambitious  of  bettering  his  con 
dition.  In  fact,  the  New  England  or  Northern  district 
school,  appropriate  to  our  Revolutionary  age,  is  still 
reproduced  in  the  rude  wilderness  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies  or  near  the  Rocky  range  and  in  the  vast  basin 
of  the  Mississippi.  Its  type  is  still  seen  with  more  or 
less  variation  and  extension  in  the  simpler  villages  of 
New  England  itself,  where,  together  with  the  town 
meeting,  they  flourished  a  century  and  a  half  ago.  The 
primitive  system  may  thus  locally  avail,  with  supplies 
assessed  among  remote  rural  folk  whose  purses  are 
scant;  these  furnish  fuel  for  the  winter  school  from 
their  own  woodpiles,  while  those  board  the  teacher 
round  in  turn;  families  with  the  largest  number  of 
children  to  be  taught  bearing  the  chief  burden  of  the 
hospitality.  The  teacher  himself  goes  early  on  a 
winter's  morning  and  makes  the  fire  which  is  to  warm 
up  the  schoolroom,  before  the  scholars  arrive  to  take 
their  seats  on  the  benches,  with  rude  desks,  green 
painted,  or  perhaps  mere  boards,  planed  and  pinioned, 
as  a  table  before  them.  Such  schools  could  hardly  be 
graded ;  the  teacher  called  up  classes  in  turn  as  occasion 
might  serve  him;  and  much  of  his  time  was  spent  in 
setting  copies  for  the  writing  books  or  in  mending  with 
his  so-called  penknife  the  clumsy  urchin's  goosequill. 
If  wise,  he  armed  himself  with  rod,  ruler,  switch  or 
ferule  in  token  of  his  authority;  and  many  have  been 
the  stories  among  returned  college  students  thus  placed 
in  charge,  of  tussles  with  the  older  boys,  bigger  than 
themselves,  where  some  rebel,  who  made  purposely  an 
issue  of  strength,  had  to  be  thrown  upon  the  floor  and 
physically  compelled  before  the  new  master  could  rule 
his  little  realm  respected.  Girls  and  boys  of  neighbor 
ing  families  here  collected  day  by  day  for  their  tasks, 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    209 

taking  their  sports  at  recess  apart ;  and  the  visit  of  the 
district  school  committee  was  a  crowning  episode  of  the 
term. 


By  the  year  of  the  Stamp  Act,  America  had,  besides 
her  public  schools,  good  corresponding  means  of  private 
instruction,  whether  as  preparatory  to  college  or  for 
completing  the  average  youth's  training  for  active  life. 
In  old  Virginia  and  such  other  colonies  as  were  loth  to 
tax  themselves  for  common  education,  parents  of  means 
and  social  standing  patronized  largely  these  private 
schools,  whose  masters  were  often  Scotch  or  English 
clergymen,  liberally  trained,  but  without  glebe  or  tithes 
for  an  adequate  support.  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Mon 
roe  received  their  early  schooling  in  this  manner.  Pur 
suing  the  fundamental  English  notion  that  every  head 
of  a  household  should  teach  his  children  according  to 
his  ability,  the  plantation  lords  made  much,  moreover, 
of  private  tutors  in  their  own  households.  One  Vir 
ginia  gentleman  we  see  advertising  in  1774  for  a  person 
to  teach  Greek  and  Latin  in  his  family.  Another  in 
1772  announces  his  wish  to  engage  some  single  gentle 
man  who  would  live  upon  his  plantation  with  the 
family ;  he  desires  five  or  six  of  his  grandsons  grounded 
in  grammar,  writing  and  arithmetic  under  his  own 
inspection,  and  offers  £50  a  year,  with  board,  not 
objecting  to  "standing  in"  besides  for  the  cost  of  wash 
ing  and  slight  repairs.  Washington,  while  looking 
after  the  education  of  his  young  ward  and  stepson,  Jack 
Custis  (whom,  by  the  way,  he  called  "my  son-in-law" 
in  one  of  his  letters  of  that  date),  followed  the  fashion 
of  his  province  in  putting  out  the  boy  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  to  a  church  incumbent  at  Annapolis,  who  had 


210  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

other  pupils;  having  provided  for  the  lad's  earlier 
studies  under  another  clergyman,  who  was  domiciled 
at  Mount  Vernon. 

There  were  at  this  time  private  schools  of  varying 
merit  at  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston  and  our  other 
chief  centres,  and  the  word  "academy"  came  at  length 
to  be  shared  by  such  institutions  of  the  higher  grade. 
Besides  managers  and  head  masters,  applicants  for  the 
post  of  tutor  in  a  school  or  private  family  made  their 
wants  known  widely  through  the  local  press.  Thus  in 
1772,  in  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  one  offered  to  be 
private  tutor  in  a  gentleman's  family  or  to  take  a  school 
near  the  city;  he  had  taught  in  this  country  several 
years  with  approbation;  he  was  sober  and  intelligent; 
he  could  instruct  in  spelling,  in  "reading  English  with 
propriety,"  in  arithmetic,  merchants'  accounts,  trigo 
nometry  and  navigation.  In  New  York  City  a  private 
teacher  of  Latin,  Greek,  science  and  mathematics 
offered  to  provide  pupils  with  a  better  knowledge  of 
English  "than  is  common  in  the  reading  and  writing 
[or  public]  schools,"  and  to  teach  the  English  tongue 
p  grammatically.  We  see  a  boarding  school  opened  in 
1772  at  Trenton,  whose  head  master  engaged  to  teach 
the  English  language  grammatically,  and  give  lessons 
in  writing,  arithmetic,  bookkeeping  after  the  Italian 
method,  geometry,  trigonometry,  mensuration,  survey 
ing,  gauging  and  navigation.1 

The  prominence  given  to  the  English  rudiments  in 
such  appeals  is  noteworthy ;  and  the  language,  the  liter 
ature  of  our  mother  tongue,  was  held  the  first  essential 

laThose  who  intrust  him  with  the  care  of  their  children,"  he 
unctuously  added,  "may  depend  on  his  exciting  so  as  to  facilitate 
their  learning,  instruct  their  morals  and  in  every  respect  approve 
his  conduct  to  God  and  man.  N.  B.  Proper  care  will  be  taken  of 
their  clothes." 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    211 

of  secular  culture.  "English  grammar,  logic  and  com 
position,"  argues  one  advertiser  of  1772,  "are  much 
insisted  on  in  these  days  for  making  a  figure  in  the 
lettered  world,  and  enabling  young  masters  and  misses 
to  write  polite  letters  on  business  and  friendship."  Yet 
our  best  private  schools  and  teachers  were  competent, 
besides,  for  grounding  in  Latin  and  Greek,  and  youths 
were  well  prepared  for  college  and  a  classical  course. 
French,  however,  which  ranked  as  a  polite  accomplish 
ment,  was  largely  imparted  by  the  music  and  dancing 
masters  from  abroad. 

The  strenuous  exertion  for  self-improvement,  nursed 
in  New  England  life  by  both  the  public  or  compulsory 
system  and  that  of  private  or  voluntary  enterprise,  was 
already  apparent.  One  hard-worked  private  teacher 
of  Boston,  whose  day  school  was  already  a  success, 
advertised  to  open  an  evening  school,  if  sufficient 
patronage  were  offered  him.  Another  in  that  town 
expressly  conformed  his  time  to  those  who  attended  the 
Latin  school,  besides  carrying  on  a  school  at  the  usual 
hours,  for  spelling,  writing  and  arithmetic — 8  to  n 
in  the  morning  and  2  to  5  in  the  afternoon;  and  this 
special  school  occupied  the  space  from  n  to  12  A.M. 
and  5  to  6  P.M.  "Such  pupils  as  choose  to  be  instructed 
at  home,"  announces  another  advertiser,  "will  be  waited 
on  there  at  such  hours  as  may  be  most  convenient." 
And  here,  finally,  a  private  morning  school  was  opened 
for  young  ladies  or  young  gentlemen  "who  have  a  mind 
to  become  acquainted  with  "French,  English,  arith 
metic,  penmanship  or  epistolary  writing ;"  and  here  the 
hours  named  were  5  to  7  A.M.  "On  morning's 
wings  how  active  springs  the  mind!"  adds  this  last 
competitor  for  favor,  dropping  into  poetry.  Many 
of  America's  private  schools  took  then,  as  in  later 


212  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

times,  both  day  scholars  and  boarders  as  a  means  of 
support. 


Co-education  prevailed,  of  course,  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  our  colonial  schools,  and  especially  in  rustic 
communities,  where  boys  and  girls  grew  up  as  acquaint 
ances  together,  and  each  family  supplied  its  quota  of 
both  sexes.  In  some  of  the  high-grade  private  schools 
provision  was  thus  made,  though  the  more  select  among 
them  educated  the  daughters  in  their  teens  apart.  The 
training,  however,  for  women  differed  considerably 
from  that  bestowed  upon  her  natural  protectors,  and 
found  perhaps  its  outer  bounds  in  pleasing  accomplish 
ments  ;  there  was,  of  course,  no  college  for  women  thus 
early,  nor  could  a  careful  outfit  be  afforded  in  the 
classics  and  liberal  sciences.  At  a  private  school  for 
young  ladies  in  Boston,  conducted  "by  a  lady,"  we  see 
announced  French,  English  and  needlework  as  the  chief 
branches.  At  Williamsburg,  in  1774,  a  "female  board 
ing  school  on  the  English  plan"  offered  reading,  tam 
bour  and  other  kinds  of  needlework ;  while  dancing  and 
writing  masters  were  supplied,  and  lessons  given  on  the 
guitar.  Another  Virginia  school  for  young  ladies  in 
1772,  besides  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  set  forth 
Dresden  tent  work,  shell  work  and  all  kinds  of  needle 
work.  In  fact,  the  skilled  product  of  woman's  peculiar 
weapon  was  much  insisted  upon,  with  its  technical 
details,  in  all  our  young  ladies'  schools — point,  Brussels, 
Dresden,  embroidery  and  all  kinds  of  darning,  French 
quilting,  marking  samplers,  plain  work  and  knitting 
being  minutely  set  forth  in  many  a  school  prospectus. 
Even  milliners  undertook  to  teach  specially  all  kinds 
of  needlework  "in  the  most  genteel  and  elegant  taste." 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    213 

Select  schools  for  young  women,  and  particularly  the 
boarding  schools,  were  conducted  by  persons  of  their 
own  sex;  propriety  and  good  manners  were  treated  as 
matters  of  careful  attention,  not  less  than  the  funda 
mental  morals;  and  then,  as  always,  the  tone  and 
select  companionship  promised  by  such  establishments 
counted  for  much  with  parents  in  their  selection  who 
had  daughters  to  bring  out  or  push  forward  in  society. 
Most  likely  the  choicest  of  such  institutions  did  not 
have  to  advertise  in  the  papers  at  all;  but  we  see  one 
which  in  1774  offered,  among  other  inducements  to 
patrons,  to  introduce  the  young  ladies  "to  genteel  com 
pany"  at  very  moderate  expense.  While  French  and 
dancing  lessons  were  often  provided  as  an  extra  in  such 
schools,  immigrants  from  France  gave  special  tuition 
of  their  own  outside  the  seminary.  "These  two 
branches,"  observes  a  French  refugee  in  1776,  who  had 
set  up  schools  of  his  own  for  these  accomplishments, 
"are  now  becoming  more  necessary  as  the  means  how 
to  behave  in  fine  company." 


The  true  aim  in  all  education  of  the  young — and 
especially  in  training  the  children  of  a  whole  people — 
should  be  to  fit  them  for  their  probable  vocation  in  life, 
so  that  they  may  go  forth  into  the  world  better  equipped 
to  sustain  the  duties  of  a  useful  and  responsible  career. 
And  hence,  while  average  Americans  of  the  sterner  sex 
are  trained  to  become  good  farmers,  merchants,  me 
chanics  or  professional  men,  skilful  and  prosperous  each 
in  his  own  sphere  of  activity,  so  far  as  may  be,  and 
withal  good  citizens  for  all  possible  concerns  of  peace 
or  war,  besides  competent  heads  and  founders  of  a 
family,  woman's  sphere  may  still  be  regarded  as 


214  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

T  i  secluded   and   subordinate  by   comparison,    influential 

most  of  all  in  the  household  and  conventional  society, 
with  marriage  and  the  nurture  of  children  as  the  destiny 

f  most  likely  to  assure  her  best  fruition  in  positive  influ 

ence  and  activity.  Hence  at  this  era  her  domain  was 
accepted  as  essentially  that  of  the  human  heart  and  her 
empire  as  founded  upon  gentle  submission  and  devo 
tion — the  best  possible  discipline  for  inspiring  man's 
devotion  and  love  in  return.  Both  sexes  blended  into  a 
common  purpose.  The  patriot  sons  and  sire  went  forth 
with  sword  and  musket  to  win  free  government ;  while 
the  mothers  and  daughters  at  home  sewed  shirts  or  pro 
vided  blankets  for  the  soldiery ;  and  the  spinning-wheel 
parties  of  our  earlier  non-importation  days  bore  witness 
to  the  self-sacrificing  loyalty  to  liberty's  cause  of  which 
the  women  of  our  Revolution  were  capable  in  the  time 
of  trial.  And  so  has  it  been  at  every  crisis  of  a  people's 
freedom  wherever  that  freedom  is  fought  for. 

One  should  not  assume  to  prophesy  or  forecast  what 
changes  in  human  life  and  conditions  our  new  century 
is  destined  to  bring  forth.  That  science  and  discovery 
will  add  much  to  the  world's  sum  of  human  knowledge 
and  capability  is  certain.  As  to  human  government  and 
intercourse,  two  great  problems  remain  for  our  better 
comprehension  and  solution.  One  involves  the  ulti 
mate  relation  of  the  different  races  of  mankind  and  the 
test  of  their  fundamental  equality  or  inequality.  The 
other  concerns  the  relative  position  in  the  several  races 
that  man  and  woman  shall  occupy  toward  one  another. 
If  the  different  races  of  mankind  cannot  live  in  peaceful 
union  and  equality  with  one  another,  the  black  or  the 
yellow  skinned  may  seek  their  destiny  apart  from  the 
Caucasian,  and,  achieving  the  best  that  is  in  them,  make 
institutions  separate,  and  so  preserve  with  dignity  on 


COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION    215 

separated  domains  their  separate  independence.  But 
man  and  woman,  of  whatever  race,  were  made  for  one 
another,  and  their  independent  separation  for  perma 
nent  companionship  is  morally  impossible.  Sooner  or 
later,  if  they  have  not  already  done  so,  the  sexes  must 
adjust  themselves  to  one  another  in  their  lives  and 
fortunes;  and  in  any  true  adjustment  which  deserves 
permanence,  it  will  not  be  that  what  one  sex  does  the 
other  does  likewise  and  equally,  or  not  quite  so  well, 
but  that  each  shall  supplement  the  other  and  both  grow 
into  a  better  comprehension  that  ministration,  comfort 
and  support  are  mutually  needful  to  man  and  woman, 
and  that  in  sight  of  God  and  nature  an  equally  high, 
honorable  and  essential  mission  awaits  them,  not  in 
merging  so  much  the  identity  of  the  one  sex  or  the 
other,  but  rather  in  their  lasting  mutual  love  and  co 
operation,  as  offspring  of  the  highest  types  of  a  Divine 
creation.1 

1The  simplicity  of  common  school  education  in  those  earlier 
days  as  contrasted  with  the  complexity  of  our  present  school 
studies  has  been  noted  by  some  leading  educators  of  this  day. 


XV 

r 

COLLEGES  AND  THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION 

EIGHT  important  establishments  of  the  higher 
learning  flourished  in  these  colonies  prior  to 
the  Revolution — Harvard,  William  and  Mary, 
Yale,  the  Academy  and  College  at  Philadelphia  (since 
expanded  into  the  University  of  Pennsylvania),  Prince 
ton,  King's  (since  Columbia),  Brown  and  Dartmouth, 
this  being  the  order  of  their  separate  creation.1  Only 
three  out  of  the  eight — Harvard,  William  and  Mary, 
with  Yale,  whose  foundation  dates  at  1701 — were 
ushered  into  existence  prior  to  the  eighteenth  century. 
Brown  and  Dartmouth,  both  organized  after  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  were  the  youngest  of  them  all. 

These  eight  institutions,  none  of  which  bore  in  those 
days  a  more  imposing  title  than  college,  had  each  its 
own  distinct  provincial  origin  for  provincial  needs,  its 
own  local  environment,  while  its  educating  influence 
beyond  such  confines  was  potent  only  in  a  subordinate 
sense.  To  train  up  specially  men  of  learning  for  the 
ministry  of  the  religious  sect  which  its  own  colonial 
settlers  and  inhabitants  favored  was  a  prime  object 
in  the  original  foundation  of  these  colleges,  and  more 
particularly  in  the  three  oldest.  Yet,  as  we  shall  see, 
great  lawyers,  great  statesmen,  as  well  as  great  divines, 
gave  lustre  to  the  rolls  of  their  alumni  as  time  went  on. 

Besides  the  above,  Washington  and  Lee  in  Virginia  dates  its 
foundation  at  1749,  and  Rutgers  in  New  Jersey  at  1766. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  217 

The  founding  of  Harvard,  in  1636,  the  first  institution 
of  them  all,  was  as  unique  and  impressive  an  educa 
tional  fact  in  the  settlement  of  our  Massachusetts  col 
ony  as  that  other  contemporaneous  one  I  have  already 
described — the  training  of  all  youth  in  the  rudiments 
as  a  fundamental  duty  of  the  commonwealth. 

Benefactions  and  gifts,  great  and  small,  public  and 
private,  were  sought  and  obtained  in  every  direction 
within  the  Massachusetts  jurisdiction  to  sustain  and  build 
up  this  earliest  of  America's  higher  institutions  of  learn 
ing  ;  and  so  was  it  with  the  later  colleges  of  our  colonial 
era  in  other  commonwealths.  Sturdy  Connecticut,  like 
wise  emulous  in  the  cause  of  education,  profited  by  so 
pious  an  example ;  aiding  generously,  however,  in  Har 
vard's  success  by  sending  students  to  her  sister  colony 
until  the  time  came,  in  1701,  when,  with  the  aid  of 
benefactions  from  among  her  own  people,  another  and 
a  home  experiment  of  the  kind  might  propitiously  be 
undertaken.  In  both  these  colonies,  in  fact,  the  legis 
lature  led  off  with  its  own  grant  of  endowment,  the 
British  Crown  showing  no  special  interest.  But  appeal 
was  made,  besides,  for  private  gifts  of  the  faithful.  In 
Massachusetts,  the  timely  benefaction  of  a  young  dying 
clergyman,  a  dissenter  from  the  Church  of  England 
like  his  fellow-citizens,  came  in  place  of  royal  bounty 
and  patronage,  assuring  life  to  the  new-born  enterprise. 
In  Connecticut,  a  rich  London  merchant  and  an  ex- 
settler  of  the  colony,  who  had  lately  amassed  a  fortune 
in  the  East  India  trade,  was  destined,  through  his 
generous  and  repeated  gifts,  to  have  his  name,  Elihu 
Yale,  bestowed  by  baptism  upon  the  new  college,  and  so 
be  identified  forever,  like  gentle  John  Harvard,  with 
the  cause  of  advanced  education  in  this  new  world. 
Both  these  New  England  establishments,  fairly  indig- 


218  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

enous  in  origin  and  owing  little  of  pecuniary  en 
couragement  to  the  British  Crown,  developed  healthily 
into  seminaries  of  American  independence. 

With  William  and  Mary,  intermediate  in  origin,  and 
planted,  far  remote  from  New  England,  in  the  Old 
Dominion  colony,  the  conditions  of  birth  and  early 
growth  were  quite  different.  This  institution,  as  its 
name  imports,  was  chartered  and  endowed  in  loyal 
recognition  of  the  new  accession  to  the  British  throne 
which  followed  the  final  expulsion  of  the  Stuarts.  And 
it  is  notable  that  the  same  Governor  Berkeley  of  Vir 
ginia,  whose  bigoted  denunciation  of  free  schools  and 
printing  has  been  so  often  quoted  against  him  in  our 
own  enlightened  age,1  was  by  no  means  disinclined  to 
patronize,  among  the  privileged  of  his  colony,  the  cause 
of  higher  learning  which  they  strove  in  his  day  to 
obtain.  For  the  Virginia  province  was  not  wanting 
in  ideals  of  education,  but  to  raise  a  suitable  fund 
by  public  taxation  was  the  practical  drawback.  In  the 
present  instance,  patronage  from  abroad  removed  the 
initial  difficulty,  and  good  William  and  Mary,  the 
world's  only  notable  sovereigns  in  the  duality  of  hus 
band  and  wife,  started  the  proposed  college  establish 
ment  with  the  means  of  a  public  support,  and  granted 
a  liberal  charter  besides.  Its  charter  passed  the  seals 
at  London  in  1691,  and  by  1693  the  college  was  organ 
ized  and  set  in  operation  at  Williamsburg,  bearing  in 
gratitude  the  joint  names  of  its  royal  patrons.2  Unlike 
our  other  colonial  colleges,  the  toil  and  tribulation  of 

*Ante,  p.  199. 

2This  charter  proclaimed  broadly  the  establishment  of  a  sem 
inary  for  youth  in  a  perpetual  college  of  divinity,  philosophy, 
languages,  and  other  good  arts  and  sciences.  One  condition 
of  this  charter  required  the  college  authorities  to  furnish  to 
England's  ruling  sovereign  yearly,  on  the  5th  of  November, 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  219 

William  and  Mary  came  late,  instead  of  early;  for  it 
started  its  work  with  a  money  gift  from  the  Crown  of 
£2000,  and  with  the  further  substantial  privilege  of 
certain  taxes  and  perquisites.  We  see  great  institutions 
of  learning  in  our  day  sustained  by  steel  or  standard 
oil;  but  the  prime  source  of  original  support  for 
William  and  Mary  was  tobacco,  by  a  levy  upon 
the  export  of  that  staple.  The  higher  education 
thus  made  available  in  Virginia  was  intended  for 
Maryland's  benefit,  besides,  and  the  little  candle  at 
Williamsburg  threw  its  beams,  to  speak  metaphorically, 
over  the  whole  region  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  A  peculiar 
tie  of  affection  bound  this  college  to  the  mother  church 
of  Protestant  England.1 


My  main  purpose  here  is  to  picture  these  three  earli 
est  of  American  colleges — and  those,  besides,  of 
eighteenth  century  origin — as  they  appeared  and  oper 
ated  at  the  time  when  the  bonds  of  colonial  allegiance 
loosened  and  dropper  apart.  And  first,  to  recur  to  Har 
vard,  the  oldest  and  proudest  of  them  all.  Under  the 
wise  and  temperate  administration  of  Edward  Holyoke, 
who  died  in  office  in  the  non-importation  year,  1769, 
at  the  age  of  eighty — the  longest  incumbent  of  the 
presidency  in  official  term,  save  its  present  head,2  that 

two  copies  of  Latin  verses :  and  this — intended,  I  apprehend, 
rather  as  a  token  of  safe  allegiance  than  a  proof  of  consum 
mate  scholarship — was  regularly  furnished  while  Virginia  re 
mained  a  British  province.  See  H.  B.  Adams,  in  I  Bureau  of 
Education  Reports  (1887). 

aThe  Bishop  of  London  was  the  first  chancellor  of  this  insti 
tution,  and  the  Virginian  Bishop  Madison,  in  after  years,  made 
here  the  connecting  link  of  an  American  episcopate  in  Virginia. 

2Dr,  Charles  W.  Eliot. 


220  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Harvard  has  ever  known — this  institution  prospered 
and  advanced  steadily  in  the  confidence  and  affection 
of  Massachusetts,  despite  the  disfavor  or  indifference  of 
Crown  and  Parliament.  Native  statesmen  and  men 
renowned  in  science,  law  and  medicine  graduated  here, 
as  well  as  noted  divines  of  the  Congregational  faith. 
Hutchinson,  the  accomplished  lieutenant-governor  of 
this  province,  who  served  his  king  too  faithfully  to 
please  his  own  fellow-subjects,  was  a  Harvard  man  of 
the  period;  and  more  famous  alumni,  because  famous 
rebels,  were  Samuel  and  John  Adams,  John  Hancock, 
Jonathan  Trumbull  and  Timothy  Pickering — bright 
stars  of  our  patriot  constellation.  Nor  was  it  strange, 
considering  the  traditions  of  this  college  and  common 
wealth,  that  when  Boston's  long-smouldering  discon 
tent  burst  out  into  a  blaze  of  opposition  to  the  King  and 
Parliament,  Harvard  should  have  espoused  in  sym 
pathy  the  cause  of  the  Massachusetts  people  against  all 
oppression  from  over  the  seas. 

Yet  Harvard's  authorities  were  wary  during  the  first 
years  of  collision,  and  sustained  the  courtesies  and  dig 
nity  of  their  peculiar  station.  When  in  1769  the 
Massachusetts  legislature  protested  against  sitting  in 
Boston's  old  State  House,  with  British  redcoats  sta 
tioned  outside  and  a  cannon  pointed  at  the  door,  Gov 
ernor  Bernard  ordered  its  sessions  to  be  changed  to 
Cambridge.  To  this  the  college  corporation  acceded, 
giving  the  use  of  Holden  Chapel  to  the  people's  repre 
sentatives.  But  when  afterward  the  royal  governor 
began  issuing  writs  for  convening  the  legislature  at 
Harvard  College,  the  corporation  excepted  to  such  sov 
ereign  infringement  of  its  rights;  and  governor  and 
council  yielding  the  point,  a  formal  request  for  the  use 
of  the  college  buildings  was  preferred  and  granted. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  221 

So  then  the  General  Court  met  and  organized  at  the 
college,  and  after  a  sermon  at  the  church,  a  dinner  was 
served  at  Harvard  Hall.  In  1771,  Hutchinson  having 
by  this  time  been  made  lieutenant-governor,  the  college 
sent  him  an  address  of  congratulation,  felicitating  Har 
vard  upon  the  honor  shown  by  the  Crown  to  one  of  its 
alumni ;  and  Hutchinson  made  presently  a  public  visit 
to  the  college  with  military  pomp,  when  a  beatific  an 
them  was  sung,  a  sermon  preached  and  Latin  orations 
pronounced.  Laudation  of  the  King  had  been  avoided 
in  the  corporation  address,  but  not  in  the  lieutenant- 
governor's  reply;  and  this  whole  demonstration  offend 
ing  the  downright  opposers  of  royal  policy,  Harvard 
changed  presently  her  tone,  as  the  logic  of  swift- 
moving  events  required.  Classes  of  her  zealous 
students  had  on  various  occasions  since  the  Stamp-Act 
year  passed  resolutions  to  wear  clothes  of  American 
fabrics  on  commencement  and  to  withdraw  their  custom 
from  a  certain  Boston  bookseller  known  to  be  a  rabid 
Tory.  Even  the  theses  in  1768  were  printed  vaunt- 
ingly  on  paper  made  in  the  Massachusetts  town  of 
Milton.  Afterward,  when  Cambridge  became  the 
highway  of  forcible  resistance  to  the  King's  troops,  and 
then  headquarters  of  the  American  army,  the  college 
shifted  its  quarters;  from  the  year  1775  commencement 
was  omitted  for  some  years,  and  Concord  became 
for  a  brief  spell  Harvard's  temporary  seat  of  learning. 
Then  back  once  more  came  students  and  faculty  to 
Cambridge,  whose  buildings  had  been  damaged  by  our 
Continental  troops  while  occupying  them  as  barracks 
during  the  siege  of  Boston.1 

*It  is  a  controverted  point  whether  Burgoyne's  officers,  after 
the  surrender  of  that  general,  were  quartered  in  these  college 
buildings.  See  XI  Harv.  Grad.  Magazine,  50. 


222  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Meanwhile,  the  judicious  Holyoke  had  been  followed 
in  the  college  presidency  by  Samuel  Locke,  a  clergy 
man,  who  held  office  only  four  years,  and  resigned  sud 
denly  in  1773  for  some  unknown  cause,  his  tender  of 
office  being  accepted  without  formal  regrets.  To  him, 
in  1774,  succeeded  Samuel  Langdon  of  Portsmouth, 
New  Hampshire,  after  others  had  declined,  and  this 
divine  served  through  the  most  exciting  years  of  the 
war.  It  was  he  who,  at  Cambridge,  in  cap  and  gown, 
on  the  lawn  near  the  college  grounds  where  Prescott's 
men  were  drawn  up  on  their  march  to  Bunker  Hill, 
prayed  for  their  success  in  the  coming  fight. 

During  the  epoch  I  am  describing,  and  shortly  be 
fore  Revolution,  a  rivalry  sprang  up  between  Yale 
and  Harvard ;  and  while  the  college  at  Cambridge  was 
already  thought  lax  in  religious  tenets,  Yale  was  rigidly 
orthodox,  and  appealed  accordingly  to  rural  New  Eng 
land.  This  New  Haven  institution  kept  the  main  pur 
pose  of  training  for  the  ministry  still  in  view,  yet  more 
than  half  her  graduates  were  already  laymen.  The 
zealous  but  obstinate  Clap  and  the  affable  and  easy 
going  Daggett  carried  Yale's  presidency  to  1777  and 
the  climax  of  Revolution;  and  there  were  brilliant 
tutors  in  those  days,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Timothy 
D wight  and  Joseph  Buckminster  being  of  the  number. 
After  our  struggle  for  independence  had  once  begun, 
Yale  received  little  aid  from  the  State  for  twenty  years. 
The  college  stood  high  by  this  time  in  reputation,  and 
was  perhaps  the  highest  in  all  British  America  for  num 
bers  and  good  scholarship;  but  its  students  were 
thought  lacking  in  good  manners,  gentle  amusements 
and  polite  accomplishments.1  Revolution,  while  it 
lasted,  severely  crippled  Yale,  as  it  did  our  other  col- 
aEducation  Reports,  No.  14,  B.  C.  Steiner. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  223 

leges,  disturbing  the  customary  influx  of  young  men, 
some  of  whom  would  go  forth  to  fight  for  their  country, 
while  others  came  in  meanly  under  the  academic  wing 
to  avoid  conscription.  Nathan  Hale,  whom  the  British 
executed  as  a  spy,  was  a  Yale  graduate,  and  so  were 
General  Wooster  and  that  distinguished  war  governor 
of  New  Jersey,  William  Livingston.  Connecticut,  we 
should  recall,  escaped  the  worst  ravages  of  war,  except 
for  Tryon's  raid  in  I779;tyet  Yale,  like  our  other  col 
leges,  had  a  hard  struggle  for  existence  in  those  years 
of  war  and  distress,  though  Dr.  Stiles,  installed  as 
president  in  1778,  supplied  an  able  administration. 

At  William  and  Mary,  before  Revolution  developed, 
a  good  understanding  was  kept  up  in  Virginia's  capital 
between  the  college  authorities  and  the  Established 
Church  of  the  province.  The  Episcopal  clergy  held 
their  conventions  in  its  buildings,  and  so  did  Virginia's 
House  of  Burgesses  before  their  own  edifice  was 
erected.  A  representative  of  the  college  sat  regularly 
in  the  Virginia  legislature  down  to  the  Revolution. 
The  faculty  of  instruction,  here  as  elsewhere,  preserved 
the  old  classical  fundament  of  an  English  liberal 
education.  Scholarships  were  established,  and  the 
annual  revenue  of  the  college  before  the  outbreak  of 
Revolution  has  been  estimated  as  high  as  £2300.  The 
establishment  prospered  throughout  the  colonial  age; 
it  was  patronized  by  Virginia's  influential  families;  it 
supplied  to  the  patriot  cause  besides  Jefferson,  its  most 
distinguished  graduate,  strong  patriot  leaders  like  Ben. 
Harrison,  Thomas  Nelson,  George  Wythe,  Peyton 
Randolph  and  John  Tyler,  the  elder.  Washington  and 
John  Marshall,  though  not  regular  students  or  under 
graduates,  owed  each  something  to  William  and  Mary 
for  the  credentials  of  his  civil  profession,  When 


224  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

America's  fight  for  independence  began,  far  away  in 
Massachusetts,  there  were  here  seventy  students,  more 
than  half  of  whom  joined  speedily  the  Continental 
army,  James  Monroe  being  of  the  number. 

But  for  years  previous  to  1775  complaints  had  been 
made  that,  notwithstanding  its  rich  resources,  superior, 
in  fact,  to  those  of  any  other  college  in  the  land, 
William  and  Mary  fell  behind  the  times  in  fulfilling  its 
ends;  that  its  discipline  was  lax;  that  both  curriculum 
and  strict  tuition  were  wanting;  that  students  elected 
chiefly  their  own  studies,  were  allowed  to  go  and  come 
as  they  chose  and  gained  their  degrees  too  promiscu 
ously.1  For  these  or  other  reasons  Madison  took  up 
his  own  course  at  Princeton  in  preference ;  while  Wash 
ington  himself,  after  encouraging  the  son  of  a  personal 
friend  to  make  a  like  choice  of  the  New  Jersey  college, 
put  his  young  ward,  Custis,  in  King's  (or  Columbia), 
New  York  City.2 


A  few  passing  words  with  regard  to  the  five  new 
American  colleges  of  the  eighteenth  century,  born  prior 
to  the  Revolution — Pennsylvania,  Princeton,  Kings  (or 
Columbia),  Brown  and  Dartmouth.  Of  the  origin  and 
rapid  development  of  Pennsylvania  I  have  spoken  ;3  and 
this  institution,  which  in  ante-Revolutionary  times  was 
usually  styled  the  Academy  and  College  "of  Philadel 
phia,"  made  boast  of  its  liberality  in  having  a  provost 
(or  chief  executive)  of  the  English  Church,  while  its 

*V.  G,  1774. 

2II  Washington's  Works,  262,  etc.  Part  of  the  undergraduate 
equipment  of  this  young  Virginia  lad  of  independent  means 
consisted  of  two  horses,  with  a  young  colored  boy  to  wait  upon 
him. 

3 Ante,  p.  205. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  225 

vice-provost  belonged  to  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
Pennsylvania  started  the  earliest  medical  school  in  this 
country,  with  courses  of  lectures  and  the  award  of  pro 
fessional  diplomas,  long  before  the  Revolution.  Chas- 
tellux,  attending  its  college  commencement  near  the 
close  of  the  war,  found  leaders  of  Congress,  the  presi 
dent  and  executive  council  of  the  State,  General  Wash 
ington  and  the  French  minister  among  platform  dig 
nitaries  with  himself.  Declamations  in  Latin  and 
English  by  the  graduating  students  impressed  him  very 
favorably.  But  in  natural  science  this  college  seemed 
backward;  "almost  the  only  book  of  astronomy  studied 
at  Philadelphia,"  he  observed,  uis  the  almanac."  The 
institution  had  sought  in  colonial  times  to  stand  well 
with  the  mother  country.  At  the  June  commencement 
of  1765,  "before  a  numerous  and  polite  audience,"  as 
we  read,  that  famous  provost,  William  Smith,  of  Scotch 
importation,  expressed  in  an  elegant  speech  his  warm 
est  gratitude  for  the  kind  patronage  of  his  sacred 
majesty  and  for  the  noble  English  benefactions  already 
received  for  placing  the  college  on  a  secure  foundation. 
Dr.  Smith  made  here  a  capable  and  energetic  head, 
long  in  useful  service,  despite  some  vicissitudes.  We 
see  him  in  1772,  while  soliciting  funds  in  South  Caro 
lina,  claiming  with  pride  that  Pennsylvania  had  already 
sent  forth  "a  succession  of  patriots,  lawgivers,  sages 
and  divines." 

Princeton  was  even  more  fortunate  when  she  secured 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Witherspoon  for  president  in  1768,  an 
exotic  likewise  from  Scotland,  where  he  had  gained 
distinction  for  learning  and  piety.  In  war  times,  when 
college  work  was  for  the  time  suspended,  Witherspoon 
served  acceptably  in  our  Continental  Congress.  Impart 
ing  to  his  institution  the  spirit  of  liberty,  he  signed  his 


226  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

name  both  to  the  Charter  of  Independence  and  Articles 
of  Confederation.  Chastellux,  in  his  tour,  met  this 
accomplished  educator  and  held  easy  converse  with  him 
in  French.  He  found  him  ambitious  for  his  college 
and  disposed  to  claim  its  rank  as  that  already  of  a  com 
plete  university,  with  a  capacity  for  two  hundred 
students,  besides  the  outboarders.  About  the  time  of 
Witherspoon's  instalment  at  Princeton,  the  college 
trustees  entered  upon  a  new  scheme  for  making  the 
necessary  living  there  as  moderate  as  possible,  at  the 
same  time  goading  parents  and  guardians  of  the  stu 
dents  to  greater  punctuality  in  their  remittances.1 
They  also  made  a  post-graduate  provision,  encouraging 
those  who  had  completed  their  regular  college  course 
to  come  back  and  pursue  advanced  studies,  "whether  in 
divinity,  law  or  physic,  or  such  liberal  accomplishments 
in  general  as  fit  young  gentlemen  for  serving  their 
country  in  public  stations."  Madison,  the  most  famous 
of  Princeton's  alumni  in  that  era,  availed  himself  of 
these  post-graduate  opportunities.  Yet  in  the  year 
1772,  when  Madison  and  Freneau  took  their  degrees 
here  as  bachelors,  Princeton  had  a  graduating  class  of 
only  twelve;  and  we  must  suppose  that  Dr.  Wither 
spoon's  grand  schemes  for  his  college,  like  those  of  some 
other  contemporaries,  discounted  considerably  the  aus 
picious  future. 

King's  (now  Columbia)  College  in  New  York  City 
was  founded  and  administered  as  an  institution  of  the 
Episcopal  faith,  though  broadly  conducted  in  educa 
tional  respects.  This,  like  Pennsylvania,  boasted  the 
special  favor. of  the  first  three  Georges,  and  some  hand 
some  gifts  came  from  abroad  for  the  Philadelphia  and 
New  York  colleges  jointly.  Here,  too,  somewhat  later 
William  and  Mary  had  likewise  to  dun  its  debtors.  V.  G.,  1771. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  227 

than  at  Philadelphia,  was  started  by  1767  a  medical 
school.  King's  sent  forth  her  patriot  sons,  Jay  and 
Hamilton  among  the  rest,  in  the  day  of  patriot  resist 
ance;  yet  the  political  atmosphere  of  that  college  was 
somewhat  equivocal.1  In  1776  its  books  and  apparatus 
were  stored,  and  under  direction  of  the  provincial  Com 
mittee  of  Safety,  its  buildings  were  devoted  to  hospital 
uses;  and  when  this  college  reopened  its  portals  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  a  State  charter  changed  its  name  per 
manently  from  "King's"  to  "Columbia." 

Brown  (the  "Providence"  or  the  "Rhode  Island" 
College,  as  styled  at  first)  was  founded  in  the  Roger 
Williams,  or  Baptist,  faith,  so  widely  prevalent  in  the 
Rhode  Island  colony.  At  the  commencement  of  1771, 
six  seniors  received  their  parchments;  and  one  feature 
of  the  previous  year  had  been  a  piece  from  Homer 
spoken  by  a  boy  of  the  grammar  school  only  nine  years 
old ;  for  Brown,  like  other  colleges  of  that  day,  had  her 
preparatory  department. 

Dartmouth  originated  in  Dr.  Wheelock's  transfer 
of  his  Indian  school  from  Connecticut  to  Hanover,  New 
Hampshire;  and  no  little  jealousy  was  aroused  at  Yale 
when  this  new  seminary  announced  its  readiness  not 
only  to  teach  Indians,  but  to  train  white  missionaries 
for  their  conversion ;  nor  this  alone,  but,  under  license 
of  its  liberal  provincial  charter,  to  exercise  the  functions 
of  a  college  by  instructing  all  who  might  apply,  red  or 
pale-faced,  in  humanities,  the  arts  and  sciences.  Young 
men,  especially  from  eastern  Connecticut  and  the  region 
of  Wheelock's  earlier  labors,  went  consequently  to  Dart 
mouth  in  preference  to  Yale  itself  during  the  seventies. 

*Lord  Dunmore  and  General  Gage  were  prominent  in  critical 
years  at  King's  commencement  exercises,  which  purposely  left 
political  subjects  out  of  the  programme. 


228  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

In  1772  both  of  Dartmouth's  graduates  were  from  Con 
necticut;  in  1773,  five  out  of  six;  and  so  it  continued 
for  several  years.  John  Phillips  of  Exeter  was  prom 
inent  among  the  eastern  benefactors  both  of  Dartmouth 
College  and  of  Exeter  Academy.1 


The  usual  degrees  in  course  were  conferred  by  our 
American  colleges  in  these  early  times,  but  not,  as  a 
rule,  the  honorary  doctorates.  Seniors,  when  gradu 
ating,  were  made  bachelors  of  arts,  and  three  years 
later  advanced  to  masters.  The  usual  grade  of  medical 
honor  was  bestowed  upon  those  who  took  full  courses 
at  the  schools  in  Philadelphia  or  New  York;  so  that 
America  had  her  M.D.'s.  As  to  degrees  purely  hono 
rary,  Harvard,  far  back  in  1692,  had  made  Increase 
Mather  a  doctor  of  divinity;  but  that  case  stood  as 
exceptional  for  nearly  eighty  years,  during  the  long 
period  of  submissive  allegiance  to  the  mother  country. 
Smith,  of  college  presidents,  had  been  made  a  doctor 
of  divinity  in  1759  by  Oxford  University;  Wither- 
spoon  brought  over  a  Scotch  degree  of  similar  grade. 
In  1770  Oxford  conferred  its  D.D.  upon  two  eminent 
clergymen  of  the  Established  Church  in  these  colonies, 
William  Peters  of  Philadelphia  and  Mather  Byles  of 
Boston;  whereupon  the  latter,  who  was  equally  re 
nowned  in  that  day  for  his  witticisms  and  Tory  politics, 

Dartmouth  celebrated  her  second  commencement,  in  1772, 
after  a  strenuous  fashion.  The  governor  of  New  Hampshire 
was  present  at  the  exercises;  and  to  the  people  present,  num 
bering  some  hundreds,  there  were  distributed  by  his  order  an 
ox  roasted  whole,  bread  and  a  hogshead  of  liquor.  The 
press  relates  that  these  common  folk  partook  of  the  executive 
liberality  with  a  decency  and  decorum  that  astounded  the  gen 
tlemen  present — so  unlike  the  populace  of  other  countries. 
M.  G.,  1772. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  229 

remarked,  apropos  of  the  rising  passion  for  non-im 
portation  in  his  vicinity,  that  he  expected  soon  to  find 
degrees  turned  out  in  America  as  a  home  product.  He 
was  not  mistaken;  for  Harvard,  at  its  commencement 
the  very  next  summer,  revived  audaciously  the  sacred 
doctorate,  bestowing  it  upon  one  of  its  own  Congre 
gational  faith,  Nathan  Appleton,  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Cambridge.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  at  the  commence 
ment  exercises  in  1773  two  more  doctors  of  divinity 
were  announced,  Locke,  the  new  president,  and  Rev. 
Samuel  Mather;  besides  which  Professor  John  Win- 
throp  of  the  faculty,  a  man  renowned  for  learning  and 
liberal  attainments,  was  made  an  LL.D.,  the  first 
person  at  Harvard,  and  probably  the  first  in  all 
America,  to  receive  such  native  distinction.  Revolu 
tion  and  independence  relaxed  the  conservatism  of 
other  colleges  in  this  respect;  though  when  Yale  first 
conferred  an  honorary  degree  the  General  Assembly  of 
Connecticut  thought  it  a  usurpation  and  unwarranted 
by  the  college  charter.  Washington,  it  is  well  known, 
was  made  by  Harvard  a  doctor  of  laws  in  1776,  soon 
after  the  British  evacuated  Boston;  and  Chastellux 
mentions  with  pleasure  eight  years  later  a  like  con 
spicuous  honor  that  he  himself  now  received  from 
William  and  Mary. 

In  soliciting  benefactions,  the  heads  of  our  several 
colleges  bestowed  something  of  that  same  assiduous 
ingenuity  which  in  our  own  day  is  imposed  upon  such 
executives,  though  with  more  pitiful  results.  Smith 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Witherspoon  of  Princeton  kept 
up  a  lively  competition  in  this  respect,  each  making 
frequent  appeal  through  the  press  in  aid  of  his  personal 
efforts.  The  one,  after  a  successful  trip  to  the  mother 
country  for  funds,  called,  in  1772,  for  popular  gifts 


23o  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

from  Pennsylvania's  neighboring  colonies.  The  other, 
in  1769,  made  a  begging  tour  of  Virginia  and  the 
South;  and  we  see  him  in  October  preaching  at 
Williamsburg  to  a  good  congregation  and  taking  up  a 
collection  for  Princeton  after  his  sermon.  Brown's 
executive  the  same  year  canvassed  South  Carolina  for  a 
similar  purpose ;  and  the  fervid  appeals  made  by  Smith, 
Witherspoon  and  some  other  of  our  college  presidents 
extended  in  that  epoch  not  to  our  thirteen  colonies 
alone,  but  even  to  British  Jamaica  and  the  remote  West 
Indies. 

Harvard,  whose  sons  and  grandsons  set  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  province  the  grand  example  of  systematic  filial 
remembrance — which,  after  all,  is  the  most  desirable 
in  the  long  run — and  to  whose  treasury  individuals  at 
home  or  abroad  had  by  1780  contributed  about  three 
times  as  much  in  money,  land,  produce,  plate,  books 
and  apparatus  as  government  had  ever  granted  in  the 
aggregate,  framed,  in  1773,  a  deliberate  scheme  for 
coaxing  legacies  and  other  donations  into  its  treasury. 
A  special  book  was  to  record  the  names  of  such  donors, 
and  their  gifts  were  to  be  reported  at  each  commence 
ment.  A  further  proposal — that  of  inscribing  their 
names  in  gilt  letters  upon  the  walls  of  the  college 
chapel — was  not  adopted.1  Large  benefactors  of  the 
college  were  further  commemorated  by  having  their 
pictures  hung  at  Harvard  Hall.  When,  in  1772,  hand 
some  bequests  came  to  the  college  under  the  wills  of 
Ezekiel  Hersey  and  Nicholas  Boylston,  the  corporation, 

HZhastellux  observes  that  in  his  time  (1780-82),  in  order  to 
reach  the  college  from  Boston,  he  had  to  take  the  ferry  for 
Charlestown,  and,  in  fact,  to  travel  by  sea  and  land,  and  pass 
through  a  former  field  of  battle  and  an  intrenched  camp.  He 
notes  that  each  beneiaction  to  the  college  library  occupied  its 
special  place  apart. 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  231 

besides  voting  its  formal  thanks  and  giving  to  each 
professorship  a  commemorative  name,  asked  the  heirs 
of  each  donor  for  his  portrait,  to  be  painted  at  the 
college  expense.  Seven  years  earlier  was  installed  a 
Hancock  professor  of  the  Hebrew  and  Oriental 
languages,  through  the  liberal  bounty  of  the  late 
Thomas  Hancock.  At  the  commencement  exercises  of 

1770  the  audience  were  edified  with  a  dialogue  carried 
on  in  the  Chaldaic  tongue,  "the  first  of  the  kind  ever 
exhibited  in  America,"  and  wholly  the  product  of  this 
generous  foundation.     Again,  in  the  programme  of 

1771  was  inserted  a  Samaritan  dialogue,  and  in  1773 
one  in  Arabic.     John  Hancock,  the  nephew,  was  im 
mensely  popular  at  Harvard  in  these  ominous  years  by 
reason  both  of  his  late  uncle's  munificence  and  his  own. 
He  was  chosen  treasurer  of  the  college  with  great  ap 
plause;  among  his  general  gifts  to  alma  mater  were 
books  for  the  library,  carpets  and  wall  paper;  and  he 
received  in  1771  the  distinguished  honor  of  a  standing 
invitation  to  dine  at  the  college  on  all  public  occasions, 
taking  his  seat  among  the  dons — "an  extraordinary 
honor,"  observes  President  Quincy  later  in  his  history 
of  Harvard  College,  "and  without  a  parallel." 

Co-education  was  a  feature  of  Pennsylvania's 
academy  and  college  in  this  eighteenth  century.  "Over 
two  hundred  of  both  sexes,"  announced  Dr.  Smith  in 
1770,  "are  constantly  educated  here  on  charity."  And 
two  years  later  he  advertised  that  the  board,  lodging 
and  washing  of  the  average  student  was  about  $64  a 
year,  while  the  cost  was  but  $12  a  year  for  education 
and  firewood.  Harvard  and  Yale  competed  in  this  era 
for  students,  and  Yale  seems  sometimes  to  have  out 
stripped  her  elder  institution  in  numbers;  yet  in  1768, 
as  we  read,  over  forty  seniors  took  the  baccalaureate 


232  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

degree  at  Harvard,  while  at  Yale  the  number  was  only 
twenty-nine.  Emulous  zeal,  moreover,  for  astronomi 
cal  research  was  shown.  Yale  had  an  excellent  refract 
ing  telescope,  and  did  good  work  on  the  meteors;  but 
while  Harvard,  in  June,  1769,  studied  the  transit  of 
Venus,  Yale,  not  apprised  of  the  planet's  approach,  lost 
her  chance. 


As  to  modes  of  higher  education,  America  patterned 
largely  upon  those  of  England's  best  collegiate  schools ; 
and  the  prevailing  distinction  among  men  of  higher 
culture  in  those  days  was  founded  upon  proficiency  in 
Greek  and  Latin.  Orators  in  their  speeches  and  liter 
ary  men  in  their  prose  essays  loved  dearly  to  crack  a 
Latin  quotation  for  academic  listeners  or  readers  to 
enjoy  as  the  mystic  passwords  of  an  exalted  brother 
hood.  Matriculation  needs  at  Harvard  seem  to  have 
been  somewhat  increased  in  the  time  of  President 
Locke;  yet  translating  Cicero  and  declining  per 
fectly  the  paradigms  of  nouns  and  verbs  in  Greek  was 
the  usual  standard  for  admission.  In  Harvard's  code, 
Christ  was  proclaimed  the  foundation  of  all  sound 
knowledge  and  learning,  and  each  student  was  expected 
to  read  the  Scriptures  twice  daily  and  show  his  pro 
ficiency  therein.  At  Yale,  while  Latin  was  pursued 
through  standard  classic  authors,  no  Greek  for  a  long 
time  was  regularly  taught  but  that  of  the  New  Testa 
ment.  Forensic  disputations  with  syllogistic  argument 
were  in  vogue  both  at  Yale  and  Harvard — at  first  in 
Latin,  but  with  English  allowed  later  by  way  of  variety. 
At  Yale,  President  Clap  developed  the  curriculum  so 
as  to  give  to  natural  philosophy  and  mathematics  part 
of  the  time  formerly  bestowed  upon  logic ;  and  he  inter- 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  233 

ested  his  students  in  the  Newtonian  philosophy,  be 
sides  giving  public  lectures  of  his  own  on  topics  of  civil 
government.  Both  forensics  and  disputations  at  the 
leading  colleges  in  those  times,  whether  as  in  course 
or  for  commencement  parts,  took  up  abstruse  points  of 
theology,  though  problems  of  civil  government  also  re 
ceived  attention.  As  colleges  gained  in  years  and  ex 
perience,  tutors,  professors  and  even  presidents  were 
chosen  by  preference  from  among  the  alumni. 

The  usual  rules  of  academic  discipline  have  been  pre 
served  in  old  college  codes,  which  were  engrossed  at 
first  in  Latin  and  afterwards  in  English.  To  redeem 
the  time,  to  avoid  profane  language,  to  attend  all 
lectures  and  recitations,  and  never  to  leave  town  and 
the  college  environs  without  permission — these  were 
standing  requirements  that  explained  themselves.  At 
tendance  upon  morning  and  evening  prayers  and  the 
Sunday  services  was  also  enjoined;  and  besides  the 
spiritual  good  thus  afforded,  the  daily  prayers  served 
as  a  conventional  roll-call  and  counting  of  the  students, 
an  incentive  to  promptness  and  regularity  for  meals 
and  rising  and  a  powerful  stimulus  withal  to  the  ideal 
of  a  full  collegiate  brotherhood — classes  and  faculty 
all  united  in  devotion.  Great  reverence  and  respect  to 
the  faculty  was  inculcated,  though  not  actually  rendered 
without  that  respect  of  persons  which  buoyant  youth, 
keen  observers  of  their  elders'  weaknesses,  will  mani 
fest  to  the  end  of  time.  All  undergraduates  were  to 
doff  the  hat  when  their  governors  were  about,  never 
seating  themselves  first  nor  speaking  to  them  except 
with  uncovered  head.  Upon  freshmen  most  of  all  did 
the  rules  of  college  behavior  bear  thus  early  with 
stringency.  No  freshman,  as  Harvard's  laws  enjoined, 
was  to  wear  his  hat  in  the  college  yard  unless  it  rained, 


234  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

hailed  or  snowed,  provided  he  were  on  foot  and  had  not 
his  hands  full.  Freshmen  were  to  consider  students  of 
all  other  classes  as  their  seniors  and  accost  them  with 
all  the  outward  signs  of  deferential  respect.  Yale's 
rules  forbade  freshmen  to  play  with  members  of  an 
upper  class  without  being  asked  or  to  be  familiar  with 
them,  even  in  study  hours.  At  both  institutions,  and 
probably  among  our  other  colleges,  as  in  the  great 
English  schools,  fagging  prevailed  to  a  considerable 
extent;  and  youths  of  the  class  last  entered  were  ex 
pected  to  run  errands  for  the  upper  students.  More 
over,  as  Harvard's  rules  expressed  it,  when  any  one 
knocked  on  the  door  of  a  freshman,  he  should  immedi 
ately  open  it  without  calling  out,  "Who  is  there?" 

Against  oppression,  stern  discipline  or  inflicted  hard 
ships,  rebellion  will  break  out  in  college  precincts  as  in 
the  commonwealth  of  adults.  Harvard  men,  in  1766, 
indignant  over  the  poor  bread  given  them  in  the  com 
mons,  sought  board  in  private  families.  At  Yale,  in 
1771,  the  greater  part  of  the  students  "eloped  from 
the  college"  (as  newspapers  of  the  day  expressed  it) 
because  of  some  dissatisfaction ;  but  many  of  them  soon 
returned  to  duty.  Private  reprimand,  public  admoni 
tion,  suspension  or  expulsion  might  serve  for  a  graded 
college  discipline  of  dignity,  though  fines  were  to  some 
extent  imposed.  For  the  old  arrangement  of  placing 
students  according  to  their  social  station,  the  modern 
alphabetical  order  was  substituted  at  Yale  only  a  few 
years  earlier  than  at  aristocratic  Harvard,  whose  priv 
ileged  sons  of  the  quality  continued  to  secure  the  best 
chambers  in  the  college  and  to  help  themselves  first  at 
commons  until  1773.  Sports  were  not  in  those  days 
so  organized  as  to  monopolize  time  or  divert  the  youth 
from  serious  studies ;  but  while  match  games  were  per- 


COLLEGES  AND  HIGHER  EDUCATION  235 

haps  unknown  here  in  the  eighteenth  century,  students 
took  simple  recreation,  such  as  running  long  foot-races 
around  the  college  grounds.  Football,  in  its  season, 
was  already  a  game  in  which  the  sons  of  Eli  were 
thought  highly  accomplished,  though  simply  and  fairly 
conducted,  as  compared  with  the  present  day.  Hazing 
prevailed  at  most  colleges,  and  other  such  outrages  of 
remote  origin ;  ingenious  tricks  were  played  upon  mem 
bers  of  the  faculty,  and  especially  the  unpopular  ones ; 
while  at  Harvard  disorders  became  so  frequent  on 
quarter  days,  with  the  breaking  of  tutors'  windows, 
that  the  observance  of  those  dates  was  finally  discon 
tinued.  Commencements,  too,  with  the  leave-taking 
of  classmates,  engendered  lawless  riot  and  drunkenness ; 
hence  at  Yale,  in  1760,  each  candidate  for  a  degree 
was  restricted,  by  a  faculty  vote,  to  two  gallons  of  wine 
for  his  parting  entertainment.  Plum  cake  is  said  to 
have  done  students  much  harm  at  festive  entertain 
ments  of  this  character. 


Commencement  day  was  in  all  our  collegiate  towns 
at  that  era  a  sort  of  public  occasion.  Its  celebration 
was  marked  by  a  great  display  and  liveliness  among 
the  common  people  such  as  we  nowadays  seldom  wit 
ness.  Booths  were  erected  along  the  sidewalk,  and  a 
disposition  was  shown,  even  among  the  industrial  and 
illiterate  of  our  college  towns,  to  enjoy  a  general  holi 
day.  The  governor  of  the  commonwealth,  escorted  by 
soldiery,  came  out  to  participate  in  the  exercises,  as  he 
still  continues  to  do  in  some  States;  and  the  march  of 
the  students,  gowned  dignitaries,  public  men  and  in 
vited  guests  for  academic  exercises  and  the  bestowal 
of  degrees  at  the  church  was  of  a  unique  character,  as  it 


236  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

very  largely  continues  to  this  day.  Inside  those  sacred 
walls  the  programme  differed  very  little  from  that 
which  graduates  still  living  can  recall.  Innovation,  in 
fact,  upon  the  old  curriculum  or  upon  old  customs  and 
ceremonies  of  our  collegiate  life  came  very  gradually 
in  America  until  a  new  and  vigorous  sweep  of  the 
besom  began  some  thirty  years  ago.  In  colonial  times, 
much  more  than  now,  commencement  dinner,  with  its 
toasts  and  speeches,  interested  outsiders  and  the  gen 
eral  public;  and  sometimes,  as  at  Cambridge,  a  vocal 
and  instrumental  concert  rounded  out  a  memorable 
holiday. 

So  once  more  the  sacred  insignia  of  academic  author 
ity  were  brought  into  view  whenever  a  new  college 
president  was  inducted  into  office ;  seal,  keys,  books  and 
charter  were  handed  over  to  him  on  the  platform  as 
he  was  formally  placed  in  the  imposing  but  highly  un 
comfortable  chair  of  state.  In  short,  the  Old- World 
ideals  of  ritualism,  so  jealously  prohibited  by  our  New- 
World  Puritan  and  dissenter  in  matters  of  religion  and 
the  church,  found  still  a  considerable  expression  where 
scholastic  and  secular  dignities  alone  were  concerned. 


XVI 

RELIGIOUS   INFLUENCES 

THE  vivacious  Chastellux  had  little  fellow-feel 
ing  for  the  Sabbatarians  of  this  New  World. 
"You  cannot/'  he  writes,  "travel  in  New 
England  on  Sunday  but  the  deacons  will  stop  your 
horse  and  take  you  to  a  magistrate."  And  he  contrasts 
French  observance  of  that  day  as  a  gay  and  joyous 
holiday,  with  the  wretched  idleness  and  listlessness,  as 
he  terms  it,  of  a  Sunday  passed  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States. 

In  vain  has  been  such  criticism.  As  well  seek  to 
uproot  the  palisades  along  the  Hudson  as  to  persuade 
Americans  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  day  after  Parisian 
fashion.  Not  all  the  laxness  of  religious  faith,  the 
atheism  and  agnosticism,  the  reactionary  impulse  from 
intensity  of  work  to  intensity  of  recreation,  which  these 
last  hundred  years  have  wrought  in  American  life,  has 
greatly  changed  the  prevalent  disposition  to  keep  the 
Lord's  day  holy,  in  a  sense — to  make  it,  at  least,  a  day 
of  rest  and  outward  sobriety  rather  than  of  boisterous 
pleasure-seeking.  When  in  Rome  we  do  as  the  Romans 
do,  but  when  in  America,  American  opinion  sets  the 
fashion.  More  than  a  quiet  desecration  of  the  Sabbath 
is  scarcely  tolerated. 

The  motive  for  a  strict  Sunday  observance  among 
our  colonial  progenitors  is  traceable  to  the  Christian 
and  Protestant  character  of  America's  early  settle- 


238  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

ments.  It  was  not  the  quest  of  gain  or  the  love  of 
adventure  that  brought  them  over  in  bands  to  these 
Atlantic  wilds  so  much  as  a  deep  desire  to  escape  the 
bonds  of  church  and  state,  which  defined  their  humbler 
condition  at  home,  and  to  solve  in  this  New  World  great 
problems  that  interested  them.  Colonization  here  was 
coincident  with  Reformation  in  Europe,  and  the  pop 
ular  struggle  was  for  greater  individual  freedom  in 
matters  both  of  religious  and  secular  rule.  If  not  toler 
ant  themselves  in  all  respects,  our  fathers  sought  tolera 
tion  for  what  most  deeply  interested  them;  if  non 
conformists  in  a  sense,  they  wished  conformity  to  their 
own  dissent.  Puritans,  who  gave  much  stability  to  the 
political  forces  developing  here,  felt  deeply  themselves 
the  seriousness  of  human  life  and  endeavor.  Gayety 
or  light-heartedness,  such  as  befits  a  people  for  enjoying 
recurring  holidays,  goes  rather  with  a  fixedness  of  in 
ferior  social  caste,  monotonous  toil  for  a  living  and  the 
absence  of  all  broad  opportunity  for  bettering  greatly 
the  conditions  of  birth.  Most  of  all,  it  involves  a  child 
like  irresponsibility  for  the  direction  of  affairs.  Who 
can  estimate  how  greatly  man  is  indebted  for  his  happi 
ness  in  the  chance  occasions  of  life  to  the  consciousness 
that  the  operations  of  the  weather,  which  help  or  mar 
a  projected  plan,  must  go  on  without  his  intervention 
or  conclusive  forecast?  Hence  in  Continental  Europe 
was  seen  a  joyful  holiday  abandonment  on  the  part  of 
a  populace,  such  as  Americans  had  far  too  serious  a 
task  to  share.  Like  Sancho  Panza's  wife,  who  gave 
all  her  big  words  to  the  priest,  they  of  contemporary 
France,  Spain  or  Italy  cast  their  cares  upon  their  tem 
poral  and  spiritual  masters  and  confessed  their  own 
littleness. 

"Merrie    England"    herself,    in    the    age    before 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES  239 

America  was  discovered,  was  more  of  a  child  in  popular 
pastimes  than  it  has  ever  been  since  the  days  of  the 
Protestant  martyrs.  It  was  a  tale  often  told  during 
the  era  we  are  considering,1  that  when  in  the  mother 
country  Charles  I.  issued  his  proclamation  authorizing 
sports  and  amusements  throughout  the  realm  on  Sun 
days,  as  in  the  olden  times,  he  required  the  royal  mandate 
to  be  read  in  the  churches.  Many  of  the  reluctant 
clergy  complied  with  the  order,  some  refused,  while 
others  hurried  through  the  document  in  tones  as  in 
audible  as  possible.  But  one  minister,  whose  congre 
gation  had  expected  no  such  compliance,  did,  to  their 
great  surprise,  read  the  proclamation  through  dis 
tinctly.  He  followed  it,  however,  with  a  reading, 
equally  distinct,  of  the  fourth  commandment,  "Re 
member  that  thou  keep  holy  the  Sabbath  day,"  and  so 
on.  "Brethren,"  he  then  proceeded,  "I  have  laid  before 
you  the  commandment  of  your  king  and  the  command 
ment  of  your  God.  I  leave  it  to  yourselves  to  judge 
which  of  the  two  ought  rather  to  be  observed." 


Life  here  was  no  bagatelle  for  jesting.  It  required 
courage  enough  to  take  ground  against  prevailing 
tenets,  however  reverently.  Outside  Pennsylvania,  a 
Quaker  or  a  Papist  in  these  colonies  had  hardly  a  safe 
refuge  against  persecution.  In  Virginia,  very  close  to 
the  Revolution,  Baptists  were  imprisoned  for  their  non- 
conforming  extravagance,  and  preached  from  grated 
windows  to  those  who  gathered  outside.  "What!" 
said  Patrick  Henry  in  his  maiden  plea  as  a  jury  lawyer 
on  their  behalf,  shaming  the  prosecution,  "that  these 

'IV  Franklin's  Works,  435- 


240  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

men  are  to  be  tried  as  for  misdemeanor  for  preaching 
the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God !" 

Thus,  then,  did  society  rest  from  secular  toil, 
while  religious  worship  and  meditation  marked  the  day. 
Even  Saturday  night  was  one  of  Sabbath  preparation 
as  far  as  possible — a  "tub  night"  for  the  young  chil 
dren,  with  subdued  amusement,  if  any,  for  their  elders ; 
while  Sunday  evening,  though  it  might  be  argued  that 
the  Sabbath  ended  at  six  o'clock,  was  the  favorite  time 
for  sparking  or  family  visits.  And  for  these  latter 
purposes  it  availed  not  a  little  that  cleanliness  had  pre 
ceded  godliness,  and  that  the  best  Sunday  clothes  were 
in  evidence.  Riding  was  chiefly  to  church  or  meeting 
in  rural  communities,  and  the  bright  Sabbath  stillness 
was  broken  only  by  the  church-going  bell.  To  meet 
once  a  week  as  neighbors  in  the  great  congregation  was 
of  itself  inspiring. 

"How  sweet  a  Sabbath  thus  to  spend, 
In  hope  of  one  that  ne'er  shall  end." 

Over  the  irreligious  minority  of  their  own  inhabitants 
the  native  press  held  constantly  the  rod.  "They  who 
drive  their  carriages  on  the  Lord's  day,"  it  was  laid 
down,1  "must  at  least  walk  gently  their  horses  when 
they  pass  a  meeting-house ;  otherwise  we  shall  complain 
of  them  as  a  nuisance." 


The  Congregational  Church,  which  thus  early 
formed  the  establishment  of  the  Eastern  States  or 
colonies,  was  rigid,  for  the  most  part,  in  its  Calvinism. 
Presbyterians  flourished  among  the  Middle  and  South- 

*M.  G.,  1771. 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES  241 

ern  colonies,  the  Scotch-Irish  settlers  in  rural  and 
mountainous  regions  furnishing  the  sturdiest  element 
of  that  faith.  Virginia  had  modelled  early  a  church 
establishment  upon  that  of  the  mother  country,  the 
Bishop  of  London  having  a  perfunctory  oversight ;  and 
so,  too,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Stuarts,  had  Mary 
land,  rejecting  the  broader  tolerance  proposed  by  Lord 
Baltimore.  The  old  parish  subdivision  of  counties,  in 
preference  to  the  New  England  town  system,  obtains 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia  to  this  day.  For  Congrega 
tional  and  Presbyterian  supply  in  the  ministry,  the  sev 
eral  provinces  provided  as  far  as  possible  in  their  local 
colleges;  but  our  Episcopal  churches  came  under  the 
nominal  supervision  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  every 
one  of  their  clergy  was  examined  and  ordained  in  Eng 
land  at  a  considerable  personal  cost.  Populous  Penn 
sylvania,  under  the  wise  direction  of  her  great  founder, 
encouraged  churches  of  all  denominations;  and  there 
alone  among  our  colonies  Quakers  themselves  made  a 
respectable  show  in  point  of  numbers  and  influence. 
Among  the  other  Protestant  bodies  of  those  times  were 
the  Baptists,  whose  chief  strength,  perhaps,  was  in 
Rhode  Island ;  the  Dutch  Reformed  of  New  York  and 
the  French  Huguenots  in  South  Carolina. 

For  powdered  heads  and  grandeur  of  costume  as 
displayed  in  the  city  churches,  Episcopalians  and  Pres 
byterians  (or  Congregationalists)  took  the  lead.  Few 
wigs  or  velvet  suits  were  to  be  seen  among  the  Baptists ; 
while  Quakers  dressed  in  the  plain  drab  of  their  order. 
How  many  evangelical  ministers,  churches  and  com 
municants  were  in  America  at  the  outbreak  of  Revolu 
tion  cannot  be  determined,  but  the  proportion  they  bore 
to  the  population  was  far  less  than  in  later  times.1  Nor 
laird's  "Religion  in  America." 


242  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

should  this  seem  strange  when  the  sparseness  of  those 
broad  settlements  is  considered.  Methodism  with  its 
itinerant  preaching  had  hardly  yet  taken  the  field,  and 
as  remote  homes  were  compelled  to  dispense  practically 
with  the  physician  or  surgeon,  so,  too,  did  they  bear 
privation  in  gospel  privileges.  But  the  Bible  was  daily 
read  at  the  hearth  and  fireside.  The  earnest  parish 
clergyman  extended  far  his  visitations,  and  people  jour 
neyed  miles  by  chaise  or  on  horseback  to  attend  an 
occasional  public  worship. 


I  have  spoken  of  an  evangelical  or  Protestant  min 
istry  in  the  thirteen  colonies.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  so  powerful  in  our  own  day,  with  its  historic 
unity,  its  immense  organism,  its  devoted  hierarchy  and 
an  adaptation  far  better  to  the  tastes  and  exigencies  of 
American  life  than  formerly,  was  almost  literally  out 
lawed  during  colonial  times,  except  in  Pennsylvania. 
And  the  inspiration  of  intolerance  in  that  respect  came 
from  England  herself,  after  the  accession  of  William 
and  Mary.  Liberty  of  conscience,  "except  to  Papists," 
was  the  expression  of  the  Massachusetts  charter  of 
1691.  Jesuitical  influence,  a  pompous  ritual  and  cere 
monies,  the  Bible  in  an  unknown  tongue  and  the  priestly 
control  of  laymen's  consciences  were  all  hateful  to 
the  Protestantism  which  peopled  our  wilderness.  On 
each  recurring  5th  of  November  a  stuffed  image  of  the 
Pope  was  borne  about  in  effigy  and  burned ;  and  in  the 
Stamp-Act  riots,  Pope,  devil  and  the  obnoxious  min 
ions  of  the  Crown  shared  popular  execration  alike  and 
were  consigned  to  the  flames  together.  When  Sam 
uel  Adams  held  forth  to  the  people  of  Philadelphia  on 
the  steps  of  Independence  Hall,  just  after  the  Decla- 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES  243 

ration  had  been  adopted,  he  denounced  Popery  and 
monarchy  together  as  the  twin  foes  of  popular 
freedom. 

Many  of  us  still  living  have  seen  spasmodic  returns 
of  such  popular  odium,  with  Roman  churches  and 
clergy  assaulted  in  our  chief  cities,  and  Roman  con 
vents  burned  to  the  ground  by  mobs  whose  rallying 
cry  was  "Americans  to  rule  America."  And  among 
our  forefathers,  in  the  age  I  am  describing,  the  opinion 
strongly  and  constantly  prevailed  that  there  was  some 
thing  foreign,  outlandish  and  tyrannous  in  Rome's 
ecclesiastical  methods.  A  scorching  sermon,  printed 
about  1767,  set  forth  "the  idolatry  and  damnable 
heresies  and  abominable  superstitions  and  crying  wick 
ednesses  of  the  Romish  Church;"  and  Harvard  in 
cluded  that  topic  of  denunciation  among  its  annual 
Dudleian  lectures.  We  see  the  Virginia  Gazette  com 
plaining  in  1775  that  the  imported  British  soldiery 
sought  to  force  these  colonists  to  submit  to  "Popery  and 
slavery." 

It  is  estimated,  however,  that  at  the  date  of  the  Revo 
lution  there  were  about  fifty  Roman  Catholic  Churches 
in  all  the  colonies,  and  about  half  that  number  of 
Romish  priests.  Most  worshippers  of  that  faith  were 
humble  Irish,  who  could  afford  but  little  outlay. 
Strange  did  it  seem  to  tolerant  Philadelphia  to  behold, 
by  1737,  a  chapel  whose  doors  stood  open  not  only  upon 
church  fasts  and  festivals,  but  every  day  in  the  week. 
Our  French  alliance  aided  Romanism  in  Baltimore. 
When  Count  Rochambeau  returned  northward  with  his 
French  troops  from  victorious  Yorktown,  he  left  one 
of  his  legions  in  Baltimore  until  the  close  of  the  war. 
An  unfinished  Catholic  chapel  was  here  opened  for  their 
benefit,  and  mass  was  celebrated  on  occasion,  a  French 


244  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

military   band   accompanying   the   service   with   their 


Not  only  was  Rome's  hierarchy  dreaded  in  colonial 
America,  but  to  a  large  majority  of  the  inhabitants 
even  the  moderate  name  of  Bishop  was  obnoxious. 
Happily  for  the  public  peace,  our  Episcopal  clergy  were 
moderate  and  evangelical  for  the  most  part.  They 
shifted  the  surplice  before  mounting  their  preaching 
tubs,  and  wore  in  the  pulpit  that  black  Geneva  gown 
with  which  so  many  of  our  dissenting  clergy  liked  to 
adorn  themselves.  They  disregarded  the  church  cal 
endar,  observed  Sundays  only,  avoided  mediaeval  prac 
tices  and  made  of  our  English  liturgy  a  service  bald 
and  tedious  to  prolixity.  When  the  project  of  sending 
over  an  American  bishop  was  broached  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  large  number  of 
that  clergy,  particularly  in  Virginia  and  her  neighbor 
ing  provinces,  were  found  indifferent  or  averse  to  the 
project,  as  well  as  were  the  laity.  The  Virginia  House 
of  Burgesses  voted  in  1771  their  thanks  to  the  clergy 
of  that  province  who  had  opposed  this  "pernicious 
project."  Meanwhile  our  colonists  at  the  eastward  had 
taken  up  the  discussion.  Such  divines,  on  the  one  side, 
as  Apthorp,  Cutler  and  Chandler  were  stoutly  con 
fronted  on  the  other  by  Mayhew,  Chauncey  and  others. 
There  were  pamphlets  of  "appeal"  and  of  "appeal 
answered."  One  popular  objection  put  forward  was 
that  colonists  would  be  obliged  to  maintain  bishops, 
when  they  could  hardly  maintain  themselves,  still  less 
the  churches  and  clergy  of  their  own  faith.  Prejudice 
was  inflamed,  moreover,  against  any  strengthening  of 

'Scharf's  "Baltimore." 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES          245 

ranks  and  orders ;  "no  lords,  spiritual  or  temporal,"  was 
the  cry.  Yet  it  was  not  only  the  lords  spiritual  who 
might  have  been  feared  in  a  religious  establishment. 
Blackstone,  the  recluse  who  was  found  on  Boston  soil 
when  the  Puritans  came  to  settle  there,  received  invi 
tation  to  attend  their  Congregational  worship.  "I  came 
from  England/'  he  replied,  "because  I  did  not  like  the 
lord  bishops;  but  I  cannot  join  work  with  you  because 
I  would  not  be  under  the  lord  brethren." 

The  Methodists,  so  strong  a  body  in  our  own  century, 
had  not  yet  fairly  organized.  But  the  Wesley  brothers 
had  visited  America;  and  their  eloquent  young  associ 
ate,  Whitefield,  who  first  came  over  in  1740,  travelled 
north  and  south  for  years  as  an  itinerant  preacher  and 
missionary,  dying  in  Massachusetts  in  1770,  while  in 
the  plenitude  of  his  fame.  He  and  the  "new  lights" 
school  of  evangelists  to  which  he  belonged — for  the 
Church  of  England,  to  its  later  regret,  had  suspended 
him  and  the  Wesleys  from  the  ministry  because  of  their 
non-conforming  modes — preached  earnestly  in  our 
churches,  of  one  denomination  or  another,  on  individual 
work  for  individual  salvation,  and  raised  dormant  and 
complacent  congregations  to  new  zeal  and  new  effort 
in  personal  religion.  Dancing  schools  were  discon 
tinued  and  balls  and  concert  rooms  shut  up,  while  thou 
sands  thronged  eagerly  to  hear  Whitefield  discourse 
of  the  higher  life  at  church  or  in  the  open  fields.  He 
was  a  prodigy  of  eloquence,  and  devoted  to  his  work; 
not  a  leader,  perhaps,  in  theological  thought  or  dis 
cussion,  but  unquestionably  the  greatest  pulpit  orator 
of  his  times  in  the  English  tongue.  He  did  not  hold 
camp  meetings,  however,  nor  apply  lay  stimulants  to 
a  popular  excitement,  but  inspired  and  entranced  by  his 
own  fervent  preaching. 


246  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Jonathan  Edwards,  New  England  born  and  pastor 
among  the  Congregationalists,  must  not  be  forgotten; 
nor  the  powerful  revival  he  accomplished  during  that 
era  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts.  His  exposition 
of  God's  wrath  and  the  impending  terrors  of  the  second 
death  made  sinners  quake  and  tremble  before  him. 
"Fond,  impious  man,"  whose  doom  he  pictured,  seemed 
to  him  like  some  bloated  black  spider,  hanging  by  his 
thread  of  self-sufficiency,  whom  a  repulsive  Deity 
would  cast  into  the  depths  of  a  bottomless  abyss. 
Edwards  was  something  of  a  naturalist,  scrutinizing 
the  visible  signs  of  the  lower  creation  about  him;  and 
the  sketches  of  sermons,  still  extant,  which  he  used  to 
carry  with  him  into  his  pulpit,  at  first  written  upon 
fair  sheets  of  paper,  but  in  later  life  upon  the  blank 
pages  of  old  letters  and  scraps,  cannot  well  be  read 
by  the  average  eye  without  the  aid  of  a  microscope. 


As  to  our  clergy  generally  in  the  Revolutionary  age, 
we  find  them  differently  regarded  for  temporal  func 
tions  in  different  jurisdictions.  New  York,  Delaware, 
Virginia,  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  each  showed  in 
framing  its  independent  State  constitution  a  real  dis 
like  of  clergymen  in  politics.  To  be  sure,  chaplains 
in  the  military  service  or  for  public  secular  occasions 
were  generally  approved ;  but  as  to  having  ministers 
sit  in  a  legislature  or  hold  civil  office,  that  was  another 
matter.  Dr.  Witherspoon  of  New  Jersey  (and  he  a 
college  president,  not  settled  over  a  congregation)  sup 
plies  the  exceptional  instance  of  one,  ordained  and  en 
rolled  in  the  ministry,  who  sat  as  a  delegate  in  the 
Continental  Congress.  But  some  of  our  thirteen  col 
onies,  Massachusetts  notably,  took  a  different  view. 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES  247 

Her  constitution  of  1783  drew  the  line  rather  against 
Harvard  College  and  its  instructors;  it  was  these 
who  were  forbidden  to  sit  in  the  General  Court.  In 
truth,  the  influence  of  the  New  England  clergy  in  public 
affairs  at  that  day  and  long  after  was  very  great.  The 
town-meeting  system  favored  a  settled  parish  minister 
in  that  respect,  for  in  such  gatherings  he  had  a  voice 
and  vote  with  his  fellow-citizens;  and  as  a  townsman 
of  superior  talents  and  education,  stable  and  fixed  in 
his  domicile,  the  rearer  of  a  large  family  with  the  rest, 
and  a  ready  speaker  besides,  he  was  often  put  forward 
in  politics  to  give  strong  direction.  In  this  eastern 
section  we  see  the  ambassador  for  Christ  chosen  fre 
quently  to  serve  as  a  town  delegate  in  convention  or 
the  legislature.  But  his  chief  political  influence  was  in 
his  own  pulpit ;  for  there  he  had  abundant  opportunity, 
which  he  improved,  to  discuss  the  affairs  of  the  day 
and  give  his  own  bias  to  public  opinion.  His  fast-day 
sermon  discoursed  of  political  sins  and  shortcomings; 
that  of  Thanksgiving  recounted  political  blessings. 
Civil  magistrates,  and  representatives  both  civil  and 
military,  sought  their  chosen  clergymen  to  gain  inspira 
tion  and  guidance  for  the  work  before  them.  At  New 
England  celebrations  the  sermon  was  a  chief  feature. 
In  Massachusetts,  for  spring  "election  day,"  the 
preacher  was  chosen  in  rotation,  by  the  people's  repre 
sentatives  one  year  and  by  the  royal  governor  the  next. 
The  fervent  recognition  of  a  Divine  intervention 
on  the  popular  behalf  marked  the  age  I  am  describing. 
"It  is  the  Lord's  doing,"  proclaimed  the  clergy  as  inde 
pendence  approached.  Sermons,  like  other  pamphlets, 
were  kept  constantly  on  sale  or  offered  for  subscription. 
Among  both  clergy  and  the  laity  we  see  in  the  letters 
and  diaries  of  this  age,  as  well  as  in  the  press,  a  strain 


248  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

of  pious  ejaculation,  with  moralizing  upon  passing 
events.  The  churches,  among  other  public  bodies, 
would  proffer  their  congratulations  to  temporal  rulers, 
expecting  formal  response.  Listeners  at  church  took 
down  sermons  in  shorthand.  Among  Presbyterians 
the  custom  prevailed,  as  we  still  see  it  observed  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  of  keeping  Bibles  in  the  pew  and 
carefully  verifying  the  text  and  scripture  citations  of 
each  Sunday's  discourse.  Sermons  were  lengthy  and 
to  a  large  extent  ranged  under  consecutive  heads  for 
developing  the  idea  of  the  text,  after  which  came  corre 
sponding  heads  for  application  by  way  of  improvement. 
Many  a  preacher  inverted  his  hour-glass  as  the  dis 
course  proceeded. 

Congregational  clergy  were  settled  locally  by  the 
local  congregation,  and  the  New  England  theory  was 
that  of  independent  churches  and  independent  ministers 
of  the  faith.  Presbyterians  yielded  more  to  a  governing 
supervision,  and  held  synods  in  Philadelphia,  which 
considered  the  general  advantage  of  the  body  in  various 
colonies.  The  Episcopal  Church,  we  have  seen,  had  no 
resident  bishop,  and  hence  no  positive  local  supervision. 
Yet  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  adjacent  provinces  (prob 
ably  without  lay  representation)  met  at  seasons  for 
mutual  counsel  and  encouragement;  as  in  1768,  when 
those  of  New  York,  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey 
assembled  in  New  York  City.1  Consecration  abroad 
and  an  English  common  prayer  made  a  bond  of  union. 
There  were  no  ecclesiastical  courts  in  America;  but 
Presbyterians  were  guided  by  Scottish  precedents, 


gathering,  however,  was  largely  for  uniting  efforts  to 
procure  the  appointment  of  a  bishop  by  the  Crown,  and  no  gen 
eral  church  convention  for  the  colonies  seems  ever  to  have  taken 
place. 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES  249 

while  Methodists,  as  they  developed,  took  their  rules 
from  John  Wesley.  Quakers  and  Baptists  made  little 
acknowledgment  of  external  influence  or  dictation. 
Among  the  Congregationalists  of  Massachusetts  there 
was  a  fraternity  of  the  churches,  but  it  disclaimed  all 
exercise  of  authority. 

In  working  out,  much  later,  a  general  toleration  and 
the  voluntary  system  of  support,  the  religious  bodies  I 
have  described  combined  in  the  various  commonwealths 
according  to  circumstances.  Episcopalians,  as  well  as 
Baptists,  felt  the  burden  of  supporting  Congregational 
ministers  and  churches  in  New  England;  while  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia  Baptists  and  Presbyterians 
united  against  the  favoritism  of  tithes  and  glebes  which 
the  transplanted  mother  church  had  enjoyed.  Congre 
gationalism  in  its  religious  polity  wove  admirably  into 
the  New  England  pattern  for  temporal  affairs,  since 
local  self-government  was  its  essence. 

For  the  support  of  aged  and  infirm  clergy  and  the 
widows  and  orphans  of  such  as  died  in  the  service  of  the 
English  church,  missionary  provision  was  aided  in  the 
mother  country;  but  in  our  churches  of  independent 
tenets  such  relief  was  precarious,  and  varied  with  the 
local  regard  in  such  matters.  Clergymen  of  advancing 
years  were  assisted  by  colleagues,  or  "partnership 
clergymen,"  as  they  were  called,  who,  like  the  young 
coadjutor  of  a  church  bishop  in  our  day,  might  look 
forward  to  a  full  succession  whenever  a  final  vacancy 
should  occur.  The  tenure  of  colonial  clergy  in  New 
England  towns  promised  great  stability  for  each  pious 
incumbent  who  could  keep  down  dissension  and  strife. 
Pastors  were  known  to  serve  here  for  fifty  years  or 
more  over  one  congregation,  and  such  was  the  strength 
of  social  and  family  ties  that  the  old  pastor  not  unfre- 


250  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

quently  handed  over  his  charge  to  a  son  or  son-in-law  in 
the  faith.  In  old  Virginia,  parish  vacancies  were  seen 
advertised,  which  set  forth  the  salary  as  something 
exclusive  of  perquisites.  Preachers,  as  a  rule,  were 
males,  of  course,  in  those  days,  and  a  sedate  and  edu 
cated  ministry  was  preferred  for  the  most  part.  Boy 
evangelists  were  unknown;  and  the  inspired  tinker  or 
cobbler  was  most  likely  a  Baptist  innovation,  for  congre 
gations  made  up  of  simple  folk.  Among  Quakers, 
or  Friends,  however,  men  or  women  arose  in  the  meet 
ing,  as  the  spirit  moved,  and  there  was  a  noted  woman 
preacher  of  this  faith,  Rachel  Wilson,  who  went  about 
between  New  Haven  and  New  York  as  an  itinerant. 
Whenever  a  new  church  was  "embodied"  in  a  town  and 
a  pastor  installed,  all  was  conducted  (as  the  press  of 
the  day  would  phrase  it)  "with  the  greatest  decency 
and  order." 

Anything  like  the  calendar  of  the  mediaeval  church 
Americans  of  this  age  inclined,  as  Protestants  and  re 
formers,  to  disregard.  Christmas  day  itself  had  been 
constantly  under  the  ban  in  Massachusetts.  Nor  even 
among  our  churchmen  could  the  Lenten  season  find  yet 
a  Protestant  observance,  nor  Good  Friday  and  Easter 
bind  Christian  hearts  together.  For  merriment  and 
good  cheer,  so  far  as  permissible,  New  Yorkers  fixed 
upon  New  Year's,  while  New  England  set  up  a  Novem 
ber  celebration  of  its  own  named  Thanksgiving. 
Church  feasts  and  fasts  were  condemned  and  contro 
verted  by  Presbyterian  and  Congregationalist  alike; 
while  Episcopalians  themselves  reduced  such  celebra 
tion  to  a  limited  standard.  To  attend  divine  service  on 
week  days  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  save  for  bald 
observances  which  had  not  church  tradition  back  of 
them.  Notable,  however,  in  this  latter  respect  was 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES  251 

Boston's  Thursday  lecture,  which  had  been  observed 
there  from  the  first  settlement  of  this  town  until  the 
British  occupation.  After  Washington  raised  the  siege 
here,  in  1776,  Bostonians  gathered  once  more  to  renew 
that  sacred  institution,  our  grave  commander-in-chief 
lending  his  own  devout  presence  to  the  occasion.  He 
was  met,  with  his  general  officers  and  the  invited  guests, 
at  the  council  chamber,  attended  by  the  sheriff  with  his 
wand,  the  councillors,  the  selectmen  and  others.  The 
whole  procession  marched  to  the  old  brick  meeting 
house  near  by,  where  Rev.  Dr.  Eliot  preached  from 
Isaiah  33  :  2O.1 


A  few  words  may  be  added  touching  our  church  edi 
fices  and  their  arrangements  in  our  Revolutionary  age. 
Of  church  architecture  at  that  date  in  America  we  may 
fairly  judge  by  the  specimens  still  left  in  our  older 
States ;  among  the  best  of  them,  and  the  most  character 
istic,  being  King's  Chapel,  the  Old  South  and  Christ 
Church  in  Boston,  St.  Paul's  Chapel  in  New  York  and 
Christ  Church  in  Philadelphia.  In  remote  New  Eng 
land  towns,  moreover,  we  may  still  see  the  big,  painted, 
wooden  sanctuary  perched  in  a  commanding  place  and 
guarding  its  old  cemetery,  while  in  the  Middle  or 
Southern  colony  stands  its  rural  contemporary  of  more 
durable  brick,  inspiring  equal  reverence.  Such  temples 
of  worship  were  severely  plain  in  outward  and  interior 
aspect,  with  singers'  gallery  opposite  the  pulpit,  great 
side  galleries  for  boys  and  indentured  servants,  and 
pews  (a  modern  institution),  high  backed,  supplied 
with  doors  and  fastenings  and  severely  exclusive  in  ap- 

*N.  E.  C.  A  dinner  at  the  "Bunch  of  Grapes"  followed  at 
the  public  expense,  with  appropriate  toasts  of  joy. 


252  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

pearance,  in  which  gathered  severally  the  large  fam 
ilies  of  the  locality  for  public  worship. 

Only  the  Church  of  England  houses  of  worship  imi 
tated  Catholic  Christendom  in  those  times  by  applying 
names  like  Christ,  St.  Paul's  or  Trinity,  to  designate 
the  society;  and  most  commonly  congregations  in  a 
town  or  parish  were  distinguished  as  numerically  the 
first  or  the  second,  and  so  on,  of  a  particular  faith.  In 
the  early  settlements  of  New  England  it  often  happened 
that  the  local  house  of  worship  served  for  town  gather 
ings  besides,  where  politics  were  discussed;  and  hence 
the  familiar  term  "meeting-house"  as  applied  by  the 
common  folk,  with  the  phrase  "going  to  meeting"  to 
attend  the  Sabbath  worship.  Many  a  patriotic  gather 
ing  took  place  in  such  houses  of  prayer  and  praise.  In 
the  Old  South  orators  denounced  standing  armies  on 
each  recurring  anniversary  of  the  Boston  massacre. 
And  in  Virginia,  too,  it  was  the  parish  church  at  Rich 
mond  where  Patrick  Henry  made  his  immortal  appeal 
for  "liberty  or  death." 

To  the  reforming,  protesting  spirit  of  our  evangelical 
religion  a  century  and  a  half  ago  churches  or  cathe 
drals  of  the  mediaeval  pattern  with  ornate  interior  were 
offensive.  Church  edifices  still  to  be  seen  in  London 
of  the  Wren  pattern  furnished  models  for  our  religion 
ists  of  the  New  World.  Favored  by  the  needs  of  Eng 
land's  metropolis  after  the  great  fire,  Sir  Christopher 
rose  to  pre-eminence  there  by  the  new  buildings  of 
modern  styles  which  he  introduced,  and  most  of  all  by 
the  new  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  with  its  massive  dome, 
which  rose  from  the  ashes  of  its  predecessor  upon  his 
toric  Ludgate  Hill.  Yet  that  costly  and  magnificent 
church — the  largest  Protestant  temple  of  worship  in  the 
world  to  this  day — expended  its  chief  resources  upon 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCES          253 

outside  grandeur,  and  until  about  thirty  years  ago  its 
blank  gray  walls  and  interior  seemed  to  repel  emotion. 
Still  more  so  was  it  with  the  image-breaking  spirit 
which  inspired  our  stern  Protestant  worshippers  of  the 
thirteen  colonies.  Imposing  effects,  if  there  were  such, 
were  chiefly  displayed  outside,  for  within  the  walls 
pictures,  sculpture,  high  altars,  ritual  processions  and 
ceremonies  were  strenuously  forbidden.  Such  adorn 
ment  as  might  at  all  consist  with  the  orthodox  spirit 
of  the  day  did  not  extend  beyond  tablets  of  the  com 
mandments  with  letters  in  flourishing  script,  plush 
velvet  pulpit  cushions,  cherubs'  heads  and  wings,  a  pipe 
organ  in  the  loft  or  a  glass  chandelier  at  the  centre  of 
the  broad  aisle.  Nor  were  even  such  ornamental  ap 
pendages  common.  Churches  on  bleak  sites,  which  had 
been  kept  closed  all  the  week,  were  not  easily  warmed 
for  the  Sabbath  in  winter  time  by  the  moderate  stoves 
and  heating  apparatus  then  in  use.1 

With  the  mediaeval  tower  less  in  vogue,  current 
ecclesiastical  taste  favored  sharp  steeples  or  else  the 
round-topped  belfry,  these  running  to  a  height  which 
would  well  rear  the  sacred  pile  above  the  ordinary 
abodes  of  home  and  business.  Old  Trinity  in  New 
York,  a  parish  already  wealthy  for  its  real  estate  pos 
sessions,  had  a  steeple  175  feet  high  and  ornamental  of 
aspect.  Old  Christ  Church  in  Philadelphia  paid,  by  the 
proceeds  of  a  lottery,  for  erecting  a  steeple,  nearly 
twenty  years  after  the  body  of  the  church  was  built. 
Copper-plate  pictures  of  Boston  at  this  period  show  the 
buildings  of  that  town  surmounted  by  pointed  steeples, 

1Progress  had  been  made  with  stoves  for  keeping  one's  ex 
tremities  warm  during  the  long  hours  of  worship ;  but  Franklin, 
in  1773,  still  found  occasion  to  commend  foot-stoves  and  bear 
skin  cases  for  the  legs,  more  majorum. 


254  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

picketed  close  together,  as  though  ready  to  impale  the 
host  of  Lucifer  should  such  adversaries  fall  once  more 
from  heaven. 

As  silent  guide  and  monitor  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
sober  little  community,  the  church  with  its  lofty  top 
ping  undertook  three  general  functions :  ( i )  Its  bell 
rang  out  for  fire  and  the  curfew,  or  to  summon  and  cele 
brate  on  public  occasions;  it  sounded  for  joy;  it  tolled 
for  funerals  or  for  public  sorrow;  and  all  this  in  addi 
tion  to  the  Sunday  summons.  (2)  Its  vane,  perched  on 
the  pinnacle,  pointed  the  direction  of  the  wind  and 
aided  man's  forecast  of  the  weather;  and  were  the  de 
vice  a  cockerel,  a  grasshopper,  an  arrow  or  something 
still  more  fanciful,  the  eyes  of  mankind  grew  used  to 
watching  it.  (3)  Its  clock  at  the  belfry's  base,  though 
as  yet  a  feature  for  America  somewhat  uncommon, 
regulated  the  daily  life  and  rounded  out  a  wholesome 
influence  through  the  week.  In  the  push  and  turmoil 
of  modern  life  we  open  our  hearts  less  readily  to  im 
pressions  for  good  such  as  moved  the  imagination  of 
our  sober  ancestors  amid  more  simple  surroundings. 
Religion  in  our  own  day  has  to  arrest,  if  it  may,  by 
more  sedulous  endeavor,  the  alluring  schemes  of 
worldly  indulgence  or  ambition  which  tend  to  absorb 
men's  souls  and  draw  them  from  contemplation  of  the 
life  hereafter.  Steeples  themselves  dwarf  into  insignifi 
cance  in  our  noisy  and  crowded  cities,  overtopped,  as 
we  so  often  behold  them  in  recent  years,  by  the  high 
Babels  of  finance  and  business. 


XVII 

LIBRARIES  AND  CLUBS 

A  FEW  words  as  to  libraries,  those  life-long  edu 
cators  of  the  young  and  old  of  both  sexes, 
whose  opportunities  in  our  own  later  times  are 
large  and  constant.  Each  of  the  colonial  colleges  I  have 
described1  had  its  own  library,  more  or  less  ample,  be 
sides  scientific  implements ;  chiefly,  however,  for  the  im 
mediate  use  of  its  students  and  faculty  for  the  time 
being.  It  is  said  that  America's  best  library  and  philo 
sophical  apparatus  of  the  age  perished  in  the  flames 
when  Harvard  Hall  was  burned  down  in  1764.  But 
that  hall  was  rebuilt  substantially,  as  it  still  stands, 
shortly  before  the  Revolution;  and  Massachusetts  be 
stowed  upon  the  college  in  1778  hundreds  of  books 
confiscated  from  Tory  refugees  as  an  outfit  for  the 
future.  Princeton's  library  and  philosophical  appara 
tus  were,  much  depleted  while  New  Jersey  was  the  seat 
of  British  hostilities. 

Public  or  general  libraries  as  we  have  them  so  abun 
dantly  to-day,  the  offspring  of  local  taxation  or  a  rich 
person's  munificence,  had  no  existence  in  America  in 
colonial  days;  but  they  whose  means  and  tastes  per 
mitted  it  filled  their  shelves  at  home  with  such  books  as 
personal  gift  or  purchase  might  bring  together,  and 
loaned  to  their  less  favored  friends  and  dependents. 
Except,  indeed,  for  the  Bible  and  the  almanac,  people 
pored  over  print  far  less  than  they  do  now;  and  the 

lAnte,  p.  216. 


256  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

books  they  read  were  more  for  self  -improvement,  self- 
edification  or  for  storing  the  mind  in  the  practical  pur 
suits  of  divinity,  law,  medicine  or  politics,  than  for 
any  mere  recreation  or  light  amusement.  But  there 
were  already  co-operative  or  subscription  libraries  in 
the  leading  colonial  centres;  and  chiefly  to  the  public- 
spirited  Franklin  we  owe  the  origin  of  such  establish 
ments.  Out  of  the  club,  or  Junto,  of  young  mechanics  in 
Philadelphia,  who  had  brought  their  private  books  to 
gether  in  a  single  room  for  mutual  convenience,  grew, 
in  1731,  the  primitive  scheme  of  an  organized  subscrip 
tion  library,  such  as  first  developed  in  Franklin's 
adopted  city  and  thence  spread  rapidly  to  other  chief 
towns  and  provinces.  Its  fundamental  idea  of  support 
was  that  of  a  solid  sum  paid  to  constitute  full  member 
ship;  with  a  yearly  subscription,  besides,  by  way  of 
current  assessment  for  the  annual  privilege  of  taking 
out  books.1  No  better  plan  was  ever  devised  for  stimu 
lating  reading  and  self-culture  in  a  community  which 
finds  no  wealthy  benefactor  and  is  itself  too  poor  to 
levy  a  tax  for  such  purposes. 

General  circulating  libraries  were  also  maintained  to 
some  extent  in  this  early  age,  and  such  agencies,  to  be 
self-sustaining,  were  naturally  the  enterprise  of  indi 
vidual  booksellers.  John  Mein,  a  Boston  bookseller, 
undertook  in  1765  to  loan  books  in  this  manner;  "a 
scheme,"  as  he  advertised  it,  "hitherto  unattempted  in 
New  England."2  This  circulating  library  was  chiefly 
for  Mein's  fellow-Bostonians  ;  but  persons  living  in  the 


Philadelphia  library  began  (as  Franklin  relates  in  his 
Autobiography)  with  fifty  subscribers  of  forty  shillings  each,  to 
start  with,  and  ten  shillings  a  year  while  the  term  of  association 
should  last. 

2The  rate  he  proposed  was   £i,   8s.   a  year;   catalogues   were 
issued  at  is,  extra;  and  subscribers  were  requested  to  send  a 


LIBRARIES  AND  CLUBS  257 

country  might  pay  double  and  get  two  books  at  a  time ; 
being,  moreover,  at  the  special  cost  of  conveyance, 
whatever  that  might  be.  Philadelphia  in  these  years 
had  also  a  bookstore,  kept  by  a  man  named  Nicola,  who 
advertised  700  choice  books  for  hire,  of  the  most  ap 
proved  authors.1 

Books  and  a  good  library  have  supplied  the  chief  or, 
indeed,  the  only  means  of  education  of  many  a  man 
struggling  upward  in  life  with  the  weight  of  early  pov 
erty  and  privation  to  encumber  him.  But  more  than 
this,  such  silent  aids  to  knowledge  and  self-improve 
ment  avail  many  a  college  or  university  man  whose 
routine  opportunities  have  somehow  failed  of  their  full 
results.  We  discuss,  sometimes,  the  question  whether 
the  higher  education  for  active  life  should  be  longer  or 
shorter;  whether  one,  two  or  three  years  ought  to  be 
taken  away  from  the  period  of  college  undergraduate 
work,  to  be  tacked  on  to  a  person's  high-school  course 
at  one  extreme  or  to  that  of  his  professional  school  at 
the  other.  But  it  is  not,  believe  me,  the  higher  training 
of  a  few  years,  more  or  less,  that  fits  one  for  a  really 
useful  career.  At  the  college,  the  university  or  the 
professional  school  the  youth  of  talent  and  promise 
gains  choice  and  stimulating  companionship  at  the  plastic 
period  of  life,  measures  himself  against  great  contem 
poraries  while  he  and  they  are  young,  and  masters  the 
various  schemes  which  may  enable  him  to  choose  and 
steer  his  course  over  the  wide  sea  of  human  endeavor 
and  achievement.  And  yet,  for  real  success  and  ac- 

list  of  six  or  eight  books  at  a  time,  so  as  to  be  sure  to  get  some 
one  of  the  books  wanted.  M.  G.,  1765. 

1His  terms  of  subscription  were  $2  per  year,  to  be  paid 
half-yearly,  and  no  credit  given.  But  credit  was  actually  given, 
and  general  duns  for  payment  were  sometimes  advertised  in  the 
local  press, 


258  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

complishment,  the  labor  before  him  is  that  of  a  well- 
bestowed  lifetime,  beginning  with  his  youth;  and  not 
only  does  the  strong  incentive  to  study  come  to  many 
of  us  at  some  stage  of  experience  after  the  brief  college 
years  have  actually  ended,  but  all  study  and  all  higher 
education  should,  in  order  to  produce  perfect  fruition, 
continue  as  long  as  one's  mental  powers  are  capable 
of  production  and  exercise  at  all,  and  until  death  comes 
or  the  collapse  of  that  intellectual  capacity  to  which 
nature  sets  a  limit,  but  no  definite  one. 

Among  the  maxims  inscribed  upon  the  marble  en 
trance  hall  of  that  noble  library  building  in  Washington 
which  confronts  our  great  temple  of  national  legislation 
on  Capitol  Hill,  is  this :  "The  true  university  is  a  col 
lection  of  books."  To  a  statement  so  broad  we  may  not 
readily  subscribe ;  but,  at  all  events,  it  may  well  be  said 
that  books  remain  our  permanent  tutors  and  instructors 
long  after  the  university  or  professional  school,  with  its 
curriculum,  has  been  left  behind. 


Distinct  from  those  private  organizations  of  which 
we  find  so  many  nowadays  for  objects  religious,  politi 
cal  or  philanthropic,  is  the  club  proper,  whose  chief  aim 
is  good  fellowship.  Exclusion,  segregation  is  here  the 
vital  principle ;  and  however  far-reaching  may  be  asso 
ciate  aims  for  the  general  good,  it  is  mutual  improve 
ment  alone  or  mutual  pleasure  that  is  more  directly 
sought;  while  the  admission  of  outsiders  to  the  con 
fraternity  becomes  a  matter  of  strict  patronage,  selec 
tion  and  favor.  This  very  idea  of  keeping  out  the 
common  herd  gives  zest  to  the  personal  and  piquant 
enjoyment  of  a  club,  somewhat  as  in  the  closely  drawn 
circle  of  home  and  family  or  the  cliques  of  fashion. 


LIBRARIES  AND  CLUBS  259 

Everything  in  our  present  age  tends  to  organism  and 
the  co-operation  of  individuals  wherever  something 
grand  is  to  be  accomplished;  but  it  was  far  less  so  in 
the  days  of  our  Revolutionary  forefathers.  Then  the 
first  strong  bond  was  that  of  one's  own  household,  and 
next  came  the  fraternity  of  congenial  neighbors.  Lines 
of  travel  were  circumscribed;  wives  gossiped  at  the 
back  door  of  each  other's  houses,  and  men  who  sought 
easy  companionship  in  the  hours  of  idleness  drew  up 
their  horses  on  the  road  to  discourse,  or  lounged  in  the 
inn  bar-room,  or  sat  about  the  stove  together  at  some 
country  grocer's.  Of  social  clubs,  such  as  we  find  them 
nowadays  in  our  chief  cities,  with  costly  buildings  and 
sumptuous  equipment,  all  for  privacy  and  pleasure — 
homes,  in  a  sense,  for  the  homeless  few  and  favored, 
but  rather  disintegrating  in  their  influence  upon  the 
domestic  and  married  life — of  these  there  were  none 
whatever  in  America  at  that  early  period.  For,  first  of 
all,  we  had  not  communities  rich  enough  or  populous 
enough  to  support  such  style.  Men  were  busy,  simple 
and  domestic  in  their  tastes,  and  the  idle  and  pampered 
sons  of  luxury  were  wanting. 

Yet  at  one  stage  of  development  or  another  the  club 
principle,  which  combines  choice  spirits  for  the  common 
pursuit  of  some  desired  end,  selfish  or  unselfish,  in 
doors  or  out-of-doors,  is  as  old  as  mixed  society  itself. 
It  may  be  a  literary  junto  or  a  beefsteak  club  or  a  jockey 
club;  it  may  hire  a  room  for  meetings,  patronize  an 
eating-house  or  build  a  cheap  rustic  lodge  for  sporting 
convenience,  if  no  more.  What  Dr.  Johnson  defined  as 
"an  assemblage  of  good  fellows,  meeting  under  social 
conditions,"  may  have  combined  early  for  various  ele 
vating  objects  which  develop  incidentally  a  personal 
companionship,  or  it  may  have  proposed  simply  those 


260  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

coarser  delights  of  eating,  drinking,  gaming  or  hunt 
ing.  In  Great  Britain,  from  times  quite  remote,  was 
the  industrial  guild,  with  funds  available  for  objects 
fraternal,  not  the  least  of  which  was  an  annual  banquet 
for  the  feeding  and  guzzling  of  the  elect.  But  the  prim 
itive  club  met  usually  in  temporary  quarters;  and 
whether  in  Europe  or  America,  the  permanent  and  inde 
pendent  club-house  with  its  own  restaurant  did  not 
appear  until  after  the  wars  of  the  first  Napoleon. 

Table  gatherings,  with  eating,  drinking  and  conver 
sation,  took  place  at  intervals,  however,  in  these  more 
simple  days,  at  some  tavern  or  coffee-house,  whose  host 
supplied  the  solid  fare.  Toasts  and  speeches  were  an 
incident  of  banquets  more  formal.  Dr.  Johnson's 
famous  Literary  Club  was  founded  as  late  as  1764, 
though  there  were  other  London  clubs  for  wit  and 
gastronomy  of  earlier  date;  and  what  a  gathering  of 
immortals  must  that  have  been,  with  Goldsmith,  Gar- 
rick,  Burke,  Gibbon,  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and  the  sage 
dogmatizer  himself  at  the  head  of  the  table!  Here, 
as  often  in  such  masculine  associations,  domestic  lone 
liness  was  an  inspiration,  and  widowers  or  bachelors 
predominated.  Less  characteristic  in  that  respect,  but 
better  suited  to  the  atmosphere  of  contemporary 
America,  was  that  cis-Atlantic  Club  of  Philadelphia, 
known  as  the  "Junto,"  and  founded  by  that  other 
humbly  born  philosopher,  Franklin,  as  far  back  as 
1726;  it  was  made  up  of  simple  mechanics,  who  gath 
ered  their  books  together  in  a  room  of  their  own  and 
fostered  a  civic  spirit. 


Various  other  social  clubs,  less  conspicuous  histori 
cally,  were  formed  in  our  provinces  in  those  late  colonial 


LIBRARIES  AND  CLUBS  261 

days;  the  word  "club,"  however,  being  then  applied  in 
a  somewhat  promiscuous  sense.  For  out-of-door 
sports,  men  of  congenial  tastes  and  habits,  who  were 
blessed  with  means  and  good  social  standing,  used  to 
get  together  on  occasion  to  enjoy  some  favorite  pastime 
appropriate  to  the  locality.  From  1732,  Philadelphia 
had  a  Schuylkill  fishing  society,  whose  members  angled 
together  in  the  warm  months  for  perch  and  rock,  and 
at  their  club-house  held  meetings,  chose  officers  and 
spread  a  sumptuous  table.  To  the  southward,  the 
landed  gentry  met  socially  together  for  fishing,  shoot 
ing  or  fox  hunting,  organized  after  a  fashion  to  main 
tain  the  expense  of  their  favorite  sport.  Among  these 
men  of  leisure  in  days  before  the  Revolution  we  see 
Washington  of  Mount  Vernon,  with  his  Potomac 
friends  and  neighbors,  fishing  for  the  river  sturgeon 
or  gunning,  or  leaping  fences  on  horseback,  booted  and 
spurred,  like  a  squire  of  the  old  country,  in  pursuit  of 
the  fox  or  squirrel.  On  one  occasion,  as  he  relates, 
his  party  ran  down  a  fox  with  a  bob  tail  and  cut  ears, 
after  a  seven  hours'  chase,  in  the  course  of  which  most 
of  their  dogs  were  wounded.  When,  in  1773,  the  pre 
destined  "Father  of  his  Country"  (a  term  used,  by  the 
way,  in  our  press  before  it  was  ever  applied  to  him) 
took  a  journey  to  New  York  to  place  his  young  ward, 
Jack  Custis,  in  college,  he  dined  at  the  "Jockey  Club" 
in  Philadelphia,  and  then  at  some  other  club  (as  he 
styled  it)  in  New  York;  passing,  furthermore,  a  short 
evening  at  the  "Old  Club"  at  Hillis's  in  the  latter  city. 
He  makes  further  record  of  a  club  which  he  once 
attended  at  Philadelphia  while  serving  in  the  Conti 
nental  Congress.  These  facts  we  gather  from  the  brief 
diaries  which  he  used  to  keep  in  the  leaves  of  his  annual 
almanac.1  *H  Washington's  Writings,  230. 


262  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

But  the  word  "club,"  as  Washington  thus  frequently 
applied  it,  here  and  in  the  course  of  his  political  service 
at  Williamsburg  or  Richmond,  and  while  a  delegate  in 
the  House  of  Burgesses,  had  rather  an  indefinite  sense. 
To  him  and  to  others  ranking  as  American  gentlemen 
it  often  signified  the  mere  gathering  together  of  friends 
for  some  occasional  spread.  Moreover,  the  term  was 
much  applied  to  the  mess  of  one's  own  set  in  the  legis 
lature  at  some  private  boarding  house.  Club  messes,  in 
fact,  of  this  latter  description  became  quite  common 
in  the  early  Congressional  life  at  Washington  City, 
which  began  with  the  nineteenth  century,  and  members 
of  the  Senate  or  House  living  at  the  capital  without 
their  wives  or  families  would  monopolize  some  land 
lady's  table  for  their  own  exclusive  set,  admitting  no 
fellow-diner  to  the  mess  except  by  common  consent. 

At  our  more  populous  centres  small  congenial  sets 
gathered  for  winter  entertainments  at  one  or  another's 
house  in  turn  or  partook  of  the  special  hospitality  of 
some  host,  their  accepted  leader.  Thus  originated  the 
"Wistar  parties"  of  Philadelphia  renown  during  the 
Revolution;  and  similar  gatherings,  for  cards  or  con 
versation,  were  held  in  other  towns  and  common 
wealths.  Even  rural  neighbors  might  modestly  meet 
for  some  stated  purpose  once  or  twice  a  month  to  re 
lieve  the  humdrum  of  home  life.  Informal  happenings 
of  a  social  character  lead  often  to  plans  for  a  continu 
ance  and  interchange,  and  something  of  a  permanent 
establishment. 

Nor  were  societies  of  more  ambitious  scope  wanting 
in  America  thus  early,  to  promote  learning  and  the 
liberal  arts  and  to  bring  the  cultured  and  those  aspiring 
to  culture  into  sympathetic  relation.  We  read  in  1773 
of  a  Virginia  society  for  the  advancement  of  useful 


LIBRARIES  AND  CLUBS  263 

knowledge,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Williamsburg. 
More  notable,  as  well  as  more  permanent  of  duration, 
was  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  or 
Academy  of  Sciences,  the  earliest  institution  of  the  kind 
still  extant  in  America.  Chastellux  speaks  of  its  meet 
ings,  held  once  a  fortnight,  one  of  which  he  attended 
in  the  course  of  his  travels ;  and  he  comments  upon  its 
scrupulous  gravity,  after  the  manner  of  the  French 
Academy,  in  the  election  of  new  members,  passing  upon 
foreigners  of  distinction  as  well  as  residents,  for  its  roll 
of  honor.  Founded  in  1769  by  the  union  of  some 
earlier  literary  societies,  Franklin  and  Rittenhouse 
graced  in  succession  its  list  of  presiding  officers.  Some 
fifteen  dignified  men  in  powdered  wigs  and  embroidered 
small-clothes  met  in  solemn  conclave  and  listened 
gravely  to  the  reading  of  some  scientific  paper  by  one 
of  their  number  upon  electrical  experiments  or  the  use 
of  the  orrery.  Jefferson  was  a  benefactor  of  this 
society;  and  about  1780,  while  yet  our  Union  was  a 
Confederation,  the  plan  was  broached  among  its  mem 
bers  of  co-operating  with  similar  learned  bodies  to  be 
formed  in  other  States.  New  York,  too,  had  a  Society 
for  Promoting  Useful  Knowledge  while  still  a  British 
province.  This,  in  1768,  was  seen  commending 
through  the  press  a  new  automatic  machine  for  pump 
ing  vessels  at  sea;  and  the  Philadelphia  society  pur 
sued  a  like  plan  of  public  announcement  from  time  to 
time  of  ingenious  native  inventions. 


America,  furthermore,  maintained  in  colonial  times 
fraternities  of  a  more  popular  and  gregarious  kind, 
whose  aims  were  good-fellowship  and  benevolence, 
with  a  touch  of  ambition  in  political  direction  besides. 


264  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Tammany  flourished  at  that  period  in  our  middle  col 
onies  as  an  Indian  sachem,  the  patron  saint  of  America ; 
and  Tammany  meetings  were  held,  with  a  Tammany 
dinner  and  public  ball,  at  prominent  provincial  centres, 
such  as  Philadelphia,  New  York  and  Williamsburg. 
British  immigrants,  besides,  gathered  into  societies,  ac 
cording  to  their  English,  Scotch  or  Irish  antecedents, 
to  practise  philanthropy  and  the  art  of  self-enjoyment; 
for,  strong  in  their  kindred  ties,  our  foreign  born  would 
enroll  as  the  Sons  of  St.  George,  or  St.  Andrew  or 
St.  Patrick. 

Freemasonry,  with  its  sacred  bond  of  brotherhood, 
established  on  this  continent  its  provincial  lodges  about 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  following  Great 
Britain's  espousal  of  that  ancient  institution.  A  world 
wide  affiliation,  dating  back  ostensibly  to  the  founding 
of  Solomon's  temple,  commended  this  order,  which 
originated  in  handicraft,  to  a  constantly  widening  class 
of  our  common  people,  attracting  them  by  an  ancient 
and  solemn  ritual,  the  imposition  of  oaths  of  secrecy 
and  the  symbols  of  a  mysterious  public  influence. 
Equal  brotherhood  was  the  spirit  suffused  by  this 
ancient  organization,  at  the  same  time  that  graded 
offices  in  its  management  with  high-sounding  titles  in 
cited  the  individual  ambition  for  conspicuous  posts  of 
honor.  Freemasonry  in  those  days  aroused  strong 
opposition  outside ;  yet  despite  the  printed  sermons  and 
tracts  of  our  clergy,  which  denounced  the  institution 
as  a  device  of  Satan,  citing  Scriptural  texts  or  claim 
ing  to  expose  its  base  practices,  the  order  spread  steadily 
through  these  thirteen  colonies  as  over  Continental 
Europe  itself.  There  was  a  right  worshipful  grand 
master  for  North  America,  symbolical  of  our  tendencies 
to  union ;  and  lodges  were  instituted  in  leading  colonies 


LIBRARIES  AND  CLUBS  265 

shortly  before  the  drum  beat  to  arms  and  indepen 
dence 

Notwithstanding  some  famous  Revolutionists,  such 
as  Washington  and  Joseph  Warren,  enrolled  themselves 
in  America's  Masonic  fraternity,  it  is  not  likely  that  an 
order  of  such  international  scope  should  have  lent  itself 
clearly  and  decidedly  to  colonial  schemes  for  severing 
Britain's  empire.  Secrecy  under  oath,  with  its  grips 
and  passwords,  infects  profoundly  the  average  imagi 
nation,  and  too  much  individual  advantage  may  be 
hoped  for.  I  can  myself  recall  how,  at  the  time  of 
our  Civil  War,  local  lodges  in  my  native  State  did  their 
proselyting  work  extensively  among  uniformed  officers 
about  to  leave  for  the  front,  urging  that  in  a  grand 
fraternity  of  this  kind  brethren  of  one  section  of  the 
Union  who  might  fall  by  capture  into  the  hands  of 
brethren  in  another  section  would  surely  find  herein  a 
peculiar  guaranty  of  life,  comfort  and  personal  safety. 
Such  assurances  proved,  however,  of  little  real  avail 
where  passions  had  divided  men  deeply;  and  so,  too, 
Freemasonry  in  the  eighteenth  century  counted  prob 
ably  for  little  in  that  earlier  emergency  of  bloodshed. 
Yet  some  of  our  lodges  took  on  the  patriot  hue  as  the 
range  of  local  sentiment  favored.  The  Boston  lodge 
changed,  in  1775,  its  gathering-place  from  the  house 
of  a  Tory  landlord  to  that  of  another  esteemed  "a  friend 
to  his  country."1  In  1777  the  Freemasons  of  Phila 
delphia  met  to  celebrate  St.  John's  day.  Thirteen  mem 
bers  happened  to  be  present;  so  for  thirteen  regular 
toasts  they  ordered  thirteen  bottles  of  wine  and  thirteen 
bowls  of  toddy ;  their  reckoning  was  £13,  and  they  spent 
thirteen  hours  in  social  companionship — all  this  in 
especial  honor  of  the  thirteen  United  States  of 
America.2  *M.  G.,  1775. 

2L  C,  1777. 


266  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

The  real  political  workers  of  our  land,  who  con 
spired  in  secret  to  resist  British  policy  and  promote  the 
cause  of  independence,  affiliated  as  "Sons  of  Liberty." 
Beginning  with  the  Stamp-Act  resistance,  the  men  of 
this  famous  order  aroused  opposition  in  their  respective 
provinces  to  the  British  troops  sent  over  by  the  King. 
They  organized  chiefly  in  1765  and  1766  to  nullify, 
first  of  all,  the  Stamp  Act  and  cause  its  discontinu 
ance;  maintenance  of  order  and  the  protection  of 
American  liberty  being  their  declared  objects.  Their 
emblem  was  the  liberty  tree  or  liberty  pole,  which  latter 
they  would  plant  in  token  of  a  definite  defiance;  while 
Loyalists  and  the  red-coats  as  eagerly  destroyed  or  re 
moved  it.  A  riot  arose  in  New  York  during  the  year 
1769  over  a  flagstaff  set  "in  the  fields,"1  which  the  royal 
troops  cut  down.  Forbidden  by  the  authorities  to  erect 
another  pole  upon  public  ground,  the  Sons  next  bought 
a  private  lot  of  land  and  there  planted  a  high  mast, 
which  bore  aloft  a  gilt  vane  inscribed  "liberty,"  first 
drawing  the  pole  through  the  streets  in  procession  and 
then  dedicating  it  formally  to  freedom.  And  so  by 
their  attitude  toward  such  mute  symbols  of  a  rebellious 
spirit  were  Tories  and  Whigs  in  these  Northern  col 
onies  largely  distinguished. 

'Since  City  Hall  Park. 


XVIII 

INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS 

THE  origin  of  industrial  pursuits  among  man 
kind  is  shrouded  in  a  mystery  as  great  as  the 
origin  of  the  human  race  itself.  The  labor 
of  subduing  this  earth  and  utilizing  its  products  for  the 
needs,  the  comforts,  the  luxuries  of  life,  begins  and 
continues  with  the  development  of  the  typical  man 
whom  God  made,  at  length,  in  his  own  image  and 
placed  in  dominion  over  the  brute  creation.  Rudeness 
everywhere  precedes  the  refinement  of  civilized  life.  To 
quote  the  late  Phillips  Brooks,  the  great  Book  which 
reveals  the  birth  and  final  destiny  of  man  begins  with 
a  garden  and  ends  with  the  celestial  city. 

But  in  the  settlement  of  America,  so  modern  and  so 
fully  chronicled,  we  trace  out  fairly  well  the  progress 
of  human  industries  upon  a  virgin  soil  which  has  to  be 
reclaimed  from  primeval  wildness  and  solitude  by  a 
new  race  of  settlers.  America  began  with  agriculture 
as  the  chief  and  basic  pursuit  of  its  population  in  each 
of  our  thirteen  provinces;  Revolution  was  fought  out 
by  a  union  of  "embattled  farmers."  Farming  and 
stock-raising  flourished  by  the  latter  third  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  all  colonial  America,  and  the 
native  forests  supplied  whatever  was  most  needed  for 
fuel  and  industrial  pursuits.  Such  simple  products  of 
the  soil  as  lumber,  potash  and  pearl-ash,  tar  and  pitch 
were  exported  hence  to  Europe.  More  important  still 


268  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

for  commerce,  and  more  essential  to  the  Old  World, 
were  the  cereal  products  of  our  soil. 

"Agriculture,"  wrote  Burke  in  1775,  "they  [the 
Americans]  have  prosecuted  with  such  a  spirit  that, 
besides  feeding  plentifully  their  own  growing  multi 
tude,  their  annual  export  of  grain,  comprehending  rice, 
has  some  years  exceeded  a  million  pounds  in  value." 
"At  the  beginning  of  the  century  some  of  these  colonies 
imported  corn  from  the  mother  country.  But  for  some 
time  past  the  Old  World  has  been  fed  from  the  New."1 
Nor  should  the  export  of  tobacco  from  Virginia  or  of 
rice  and  indigo  from  South  Carolina  be  overlooked  in 
such  a  connection.  South  Carolina's  rice,  then  her  chief 
staple,  was  reckoned  the  best  at  this  time  in  all  the 
world.  Yet  while  the  trial  culture  of  cotton  only  began 
after  the  peace  of  1783,  our  extreme  Southern  colonies 
so  favorably  inclined  earlier,  that  South  Carolina's  first 
Provincial  Congress  in  1775  advised  the  people  to  raise 
that  plant. 

Northern  farmers  differed  already  as  landholders 
from  the  great  plantation  lords  of  the  South ;  and  those 
differences  have  affected  the  social  growth  of  the  two 
sections  ever  since,  notwithstanding  the  common  exist 
ence  of  slave  institutions  when  America  first  rebelled. 
Throughout  the  North,  and  notably  in  New  England, 
the  farmer  tilled  an  enclosure  of  moderate  extent,  aided 
in  the  rougher  work  by  the  sons  of  his  numerous  family, 
while  wives  and  daughters  attended  to  the  dairy  and 
other  farm  pursuits.  None  were  drones  in  such  a  hive, 
and  with  poverty  went  at  least  a  livelihood  and  an 
honest  independence.  In  our  eastern  section,  withal, 
improvement  of  the  soil  went  on  in  a  regular  way, 
every  new  village  touching  on  an  old  one  and  new 
'II  Burke's  Works,  116. 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  269 

settlements  growing  in  regular  order  and  progression. 
In  Pennsylvania  any  one  could  buy  the  land  he  wanted 
for  improvement,  binding  himself  to  pay  a  small  annual 
ground  rent.  Here,  however,  houses  and  farms  were 
widely  scattered  on  the  borders,  and  the  advantage  of 
a  compact  and  contiguous  growth  for  mutual  help  in 
need  was  lost.  In  the  middle  colonies  the  hunter  or 
pioneer  would  often  clear  his  wilderness,  make  the  rude 
beginnings  of  garden,  meadow  and  field  cultivation, 
erect  a  log  hut  and  then  sell  out  to  some  other  settler 
the  half-improved  farm,  emigrating  to  borders  still 
more  remote. 


By  the  Revolutionary  age  many  of  our  freeholders 
let  their  farms  to  be  worked  on  halves  and  confined 
their  personal  attention  to  other  pursuits  in  life.  Stock 
raising  was  diversified;  yet  many  outside  the  closer 
population  of  the  cities  raised  on  their  own  ground, 
besides  flowers,  the  family  vegetables.  Gardening,  as 
a  special  vocation,  is  of  quite  modern  date,  for  in  those 
early  times  men,  women  and  children  lived  and  worked 
much  for  themselves  in  the  open  air.  Orchards,  too, 
were  tended  with  care  as  a  personal  industry;  and  in 
New  England  hay  and  cider  were  important  products. 
The  maxims  of  the  almanac  were  memorized  by  our 
hardy  husbandmen.  Thus,  when  summer  opened, 

"He  that  by  the  plough  would  thrive, 
Himself  must  either  drive  or  guide." 

Or  again, 

"He  that  now   neglects  the  hoe, 
Must  in  winter  suck  his  paw." 

Southern  planters,  though  living  more  idly,  with 
servile  toil  at  full  command,  took  pride,  like  true  sons  of 


270  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Adam,  in  agriculture.  Jefferson  chose  always  to  reckon 
himself  among  our  farmers.  Washington,  one  of  the 
chief  landholders  of  his  times  in  all  America,  while 
ordering  from  London  silks  and  satins  for  his  wife 
and  costly  suits  of  velvet  and  broadcloth  for  himself, 
with  shoes  (to  be  patterned  on  a  specified  last),  pro 
cured  also  from  abroad  the  needful  materials  for  his 
servants'  clothes;  he  had  the  latest  farming  manuals 
sent  him,  along  with  pictures  and  playing  cards.  Great 
interest  was  taken  by  Virginia  in  cultivating  new  prod 
ucts,  and  her  Burgesses  in  1 772  voted  an  annual  bounty 
of  £50  for  five  years  to  encourage  experiments  in  rais 
ing  grapes  for  wine  in  the  mountain  highlands  of  that 
province. 

Little  progress  was  made  in  colonial  times  respecting 
mining  or  metallurgy.  Soft  coal,  offered  for  sale  about 
the  James  River ;  stone,  quarried  casually  in  a  Northern 
province  to  build  some  solid  edifice  near  by ;  iron,  rudely 
smelted  in  small  quantities  for  the  needs  of  an  immedi 
ate  neighborhood — these  complete  the  native  record  of 
the  era  in  that  respect.1  In  emulation  of  Spain,  the 
British  Crown  put  a  clause  into  our  charters  during  the 
seventeenth  century  which  reserved  specifically  one-fifth 
of  all  such  gold  and  silver  as  the  unexplored  soil  might 
yield.  Such  talliage,  however,  amounted  to  little  or 
nothing ;  and  still  less  did  the  fifth  of  all  precious  stones, 
of  which  the  second  Massachusetts  charter  also  made 
mention.  Coal  was  little  searched  for  at  a  time  when 
forests  were  close  at  hand  and  wood  fuel  abundant. 
But  Appalachian  America's  real  mineral  wealth  lay  in 
the  homelier  yield  of  coal,  iron  and  petroleum,  whose 

'At  an  early  date,  in  Virginia,   Master  Berkeley  is  supposed 
to   have   found   a   lead   mine,   whose  secret  perished   with  him. 

Cookc's   "Virginia." 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  271 

best  secrets  were  locked  up  all  the  while  that  royal 
supremacy  lasted. 

In  fishing  and  hunting,  however,  these  colonies 
yielded  abundance,  nor  was  it  in  vain  that  charters  of 
New  England  had  enjoined  it  upon  the  inhabitants  to 
pursue  "the  trade  of  fishing"  and  "the  business  of 
taking  whales."  Burke's  splendid  tribute  of  1775  to 
America's  fisheries,  and  particularly  to  the  whale  fish 
ery  of  our  eastern  colonies,  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.1 
Cod  fisheries  off  the  Grand  Banks,  near  Newfoundland, 
also  engaged  the  hardy  mariners  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
Whales  in  those  days  came  sometimes  near  the  coast 
and  were  captured  easily;  one  forty  feet  long,  discov 
ered  off  Marshfield  in  1769  and  attacked  by  sharks, 
became  the  prize  of  a  fishing  schooner;  others  were 
seen  occasionally  near  Philadelphia  and  off  Cape  May. 

The  general  commerce  of  these  colonies  was  brisk, 
active  and  diversified,  whether  foreign  or  coastwise. 
For  not  to  speak  of  other  ports,  we  see,  in  1765,  vessels 
clearing  or  entering  Boston  from  Connecticut,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Virginia  and  the  James  River; 
from  various  West  India  islands;  from  Greenock, 
London  and  the  ports  of  Continental  Europe.  But 
there  was  little  native  capital  embarked  in  such  busi 
ness,  and  the  policy  of  the  mother  country  was  to  con 
fine  all  her  colonies  as  much  as  possible  to  agriculture 
and  the  simple  kindred  pursuits  of  hunting  and  fishing, 
while  she  kept  both  commerce  and  manufactures  for  her 
own  profit  in  this  distant  market. 

Dwelling  upon  the  monopoly  feature  of  England's 

commercial  policy  toward   her  colonies — that  policy 

which  contrives  a  "home  market,"  so  called,  out  of  a 

distant    and    subservient    population — Burke    further 

'11  Burke's  Works,  116-118  (i775). 


272  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

observes  that  Americans,  and  particularly  those  of  the 
Northern  provinces,  imported  ten  times  as  much  from 
Great  Britain  as  they  sent  back  in  return,  and  that  a 
great  part  of  their  foreign  balance  was  and  had  to  be 
remitted  to  London.  True  was  it,  as  others  had  ob 
served,  that  American  seas  were  covered  with  ships  and 
their  rivers  floating  with  commerce;  "but  it  is  with  our 
ships,"  he  explains,  "that  these  seas  are  covered,  and 
their  rivers  float  with  British  commerce."  Americans 
were  not  rich,  as  a  whole,  nor  were  there  really  rich 
men  among  them ;  for  in  some  of  their  most  consider 
able  provinces,  such  as  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
not  two  men  could  be  found  who  could  afford,  as 
absentees,  to  spend  a  thousand  pounds  a  year.  'The 
American  merchants  are  our  factors,"  says  Burke ;  "all 
in  reality,  most  even  in  name.  The  Americans  trade, 
navigate,  cultivate  with  British  capital — to  their  own 
advantage,  to  be  sure,  for  without  these  capitals  their 
ploughs  would  be  stopped  and  their  ships  wind  bound. 
But  he  who  furnishes  the  capital  must,  on  the  whole, 
be  principally  benefited ;  the  person  who  works  upon  it 
profits  on  his  part,  too,  but  he  profits  in  a  subordinate 
way,  as  our  colonies  do,"  or,  in  other  words,  as  the 
servant  of  a  wise  and  indulgent  master.1 


In  trade,  to  speak  broadly,  social  distinctions  are 
fostered  by  the  demarcation  of  wholesale  and  retail. 
"Raw  wool,"  writes  Douglas  Jerrold,  "does  not  speak 
to  half-penny  ball  of  worsted ;  tallow  in  the  cask  looks 
down  upon  sixes  to  the  pound,  and  pig  iron  turns  up 
its  nose  at  ten-penny  nails."  Yet  wholesale  and  retail 
in  a  community  are  always  relative  terms,  and  in  the 
*!  Burke's  Works,  375,  392-394- 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  273 

days  of  our  forefathers,  whose  capital  was  so  meagre, 
even  the  largest  dealers  among  the  inhabitants  did  what 
nowadays  would  be  thought  rather  a  petty  business. 
Importing  merchants  advertised  consignments  from 
abroad  or  coastwise  of  all  the  miscellaneous  articles 
of  wear,  food  or  drink  products  that  might  suit  the 
various  classes  of  consumers  in  a  new  society.  There 
were  English,  Scotch  and  Irish  goods;  broadcloths  of 
scarlet,  crimson,  green,  black,  blue,  chocolate,  drab  and 
mixed,  from  London,  Liverpool  or  Glasgow;  damask, 
brocade,  lutestrings,  satin,  sarsnet  and  poplins;  gold, 
silver  and  Brussels  lace;  fashionable  silks,  satin  shoes, 
garnet  or  pearl  necklaces  and  white  or  black  beaver 
riding  hats  for  the  ladies;  with  mufTets  and  tippets, 
besides,  and  a  host  of  minor  commodities  "too  tedious 
to  mention,"  as  the  advertiser  would  close  his  enumera 
tion.  Besides  sugar,  Bohea  tea,  coffee,  chocolate  and 
spices,  were  announced  imported  raisins,  currants, 
Turkey  figs,  olives,  Cheshire  and  Gloucestershire 
cheeses,  fresh  and  pickled  limes,  citron,  sweet  China 
oranges,  Lisbon  sweet  oil,  London  porter  and  even 
orange  juice  for  punch. 

We  speak  as  a  novelty  of  department  stores  to-day, 
such  as  are  carried  on  at  our  chief  centres  for  the  gen 
eral  public  as  individual  buyers.  But  one  reads  of  such 
an  establishment,  called  the  "Universal  Store,"  which 
did  business  in  New  York  City  a  hundred  and  thirty 
years  or  more  ago,  at  the  sign  of  the  looking-glass  and 
druggist's  post.  So  far,  too,  as  local  trade  might  per 
mit,  such  was,  in  fact,  the  character  of  most  of  our 
country  stores  in  that  eighteenth  century,  whose  cus 
tom  was  drawn  from  a  safe  constituency,  when  travel 
to  a  metropolis  was  rare  and  mail  and  carriage  facilities 
inadequate.  The  country  trader  in  "dry  and  West 


274  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

India  goods,"  purveyor  for  the  people  and  general 
factor  in  the  exchange  of  farm  supplies  for  miles  about, 
was  indeed  a  man  of  substance  and  held  high  his  head ; 
in  town  or  county  affairs,  and  perchance  in  the  parish 
church,  too,  his  influence  was  great,  for  he  knew  every 
one;  and  at  his  store,  as  in  a  tavern,  men  drew  up  by 
the  fire  to  discuss  politics  and  the  local  news,  stimulated 
by  the  glass  of  liquor  which  he  disdained  not  to  measure 
out  for  modest  coin. 

The  regular  storekeepers  of  these  provinces  antag 
onized  the  auctioneers,  whose  sales  at  vendue,  as  they 
were  called,  embraced  not  only  second-hand  goods,  but 
such  at  first  hand,  besides,  as  might  need  to  be  quickly 
disposed  of  for  ready  money.  The  sales  of  sheriffs  and 
fiduciaries  were  at  public  auction.  Men  sharp  and  glib- 
tongued  devoted  themselves  to  this  pursuit.  We  see 
one  who  opened  his  "auction  hall"  close  by  the  town 
house,  with  a  livery  stable  for  his  patrons  conveniently 
opposite.  Goods  imported  twelve  months  earlier  were 
offered  by  him  two  days  in  the  week.  In  large  towns 
might  be  seen  evening  auctions,  besides;  there  were 
horse  auctions,  book  auctions  and  mock  auctions;  and 
prizes  taken  by  our  privateers  during  the  Revolution 
were  presently  knocked  off  in  this  manner.  Auction 
eers,  like  other  business  men  of  our  colonies,  accosted 
the  public  in  the  third  person  when  advertising.  'Tuff- 
ing  is  not  his  talent,"  announced  one  of  these  in  the 
local  press,  content,  as  he  declared,  with  a  moderate 
commission ;  "but  he  begs  to  say  that,  as  he  is  deter 
mined  to  exert  himself  and  use  his  utmost  endeavors 
to  give  satisfaction  to  his  employers,  so  he  humbly 
hopes  that  in  point  of  fidelity,  assiduity  and  dexterity 
they  will  find  him  to  come  out  not  far  from  the  first 
three."1  'N.  E.  C,  (1775-76). 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  275 

Startling  and  spectacular  modes  of  doing  business, 
such  as  we  witness  at  the  present  day,  were  not  in 
vogue  thus  early.  Men  did  not  propose  "large  sales 
and  small  profits,"  but  rather  moderate  sales  with  a 
moderate  return.  Sales  at  "immense  sacrifice"  were 
not  proclaimed,  as  though  the  main  effort  of  merchants 
were  to  escape  from  their  ventures  with  the  lowest 
possible  margin  of  loss;  but  dealers  meant  to  make 
ends  meet,  if  no  more,  and  said  as  much.  There  ap 
peared  no  individual  haste  to  get  rich,  no  monopoly. 
One  who  was  hard  pressed  offered  to  sell  at  lowest 
prices,  which  meant  at  somewhat  more  than  cost.  An 
enterprising  dealer  at  one  of  our  ports  announced  in 
1771,  as  a  nqvel  plan,  that  he  would  hereafter  sell  by 
wholesale  and  retail,  at  "little  more  than  the  sterling  cost 
and  charges."  He  warranted,  moreover,  that  the  teas 
and  indigo  he  sold  were  of  the  best  kind,  and  if  it 
proved  otherwise,  he  would  take  back  the  goods  and 
refund  the  money.  In  short,  if  our  colonist  offered  to 
sell  at  actual  loss,  he  would  not  say  so ;  but  when  closing 
out  a  business  hastily,  he  offered  simply  to  sell  at  much 
under  the  customary  advance. 


The  wide  recognition  of  a  credit  system  in  these 
colonies  bred  difficulties  which  trade  had  constantly  to 
cope  with.  Murray,  a  Scotch  immigrant,  found  in 
1736,  when  importing  his  first  cargo  to  a  Southern 
port,  that  in  the  Carolinas  a  twelve  months'  credit  was 
regularly  expected;  and  a  large  part  of  what  he  re 
ceived  for  his  merchandise  was  in  North  Carolina  cur 
rency  and  in  private  debts  floated  by  bills  receivable, 
which  he  could  not  negotiate  abroad.  Not  only  did  the 
plaintive  duns  of  printer  and  carrier  frequently  appear 


276  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

in  the  press  of  this  era,  such  as  I  have  elsewhere  men 
tioned,  but  those,  besides,  of  business  men,  equally 
vague  and  equally  deferential  toward  all  delinquent 
patrons.  The  threat  to  sue  was  always  a  covert  one, 
without  mention  of  names,  and  usually,  we  may  assume, 
that  threat  was  not  fulfilled.  Several  times  (one  of 
these  forbearing  creditors  would  say)  he  had  given 
public  notice  to  all  debtors  to  settle  with  him,  but  little 
attention  had  been  paid.  So  now  for  the  last  time  he 
issued  his  notice,  and  those  who  disregard  it  "will  be 
sued  according  to  law,  without  respect  to  persons."1 
"Intending  very  shortly  for  England"  was  a  favor 
ite  plea  as  Revolution  approached,  and  he  who  was 
thus  winding  up  his  American  affairs  "begged  the 
favor  of  all  persons  indebted  to  make  immediate  pay 
ment;"  for  delinquent  debts  long  standing  he  would 
certainly  leave  in  the  hands  of  an  attorney.  Many  an 
advertiser  had  debts  of  his  own  that  must  be  paid,  and 
hence  he  begged  leave  to  press  for  the  payments  due 
himself.  "Cash  or  short  credit"  was  the  mode  favored 
in  Philadelphia  by  1772;  or  perhaps  "cash  or  short 
credit  or  barter."  One  would  sell  his  cheapest  if  paid 
for  the  goods  in  cash ;  and  he  sought  security  where  he 
sold  on  long  credit.  By  1773  some  declared  publicly 
that  they  had  suffered  great  inconvenience  of  credit,  and 
would  sell  hereafter  for  ready  money  only. 

Of  course,  in  our  primitive  state  of  society  the 
barter  system  had  largely  prevailed.  Farmers  ex 
changed  at  the  country  store  their  meat,  their  grain, 
cheese  and  butter  and  their  garden  truck  for  house 
hold  groceries  and  clothing.  The  miller  who  ground 
corn  took  his  toll  from  the  meal.  Due  bills  from  a 
dealer  were  payable  out  of  his  stock  in  trade.  Car- 
*M.  G,  1773- 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  277 

penters  and  painters  made  good  what  they  owed  by 
jobbing  their  services.  During  the  momentous 
seventies  of  the  eighteenth  century  one  rum  distiller 
offered  to  sell  cheap  for  cash  or  molasses ;  another  con 
sented  to  take  "good  merchantable  potash,"  and  a  third 
tobacco  "and  other  articles  that  sell."  It  was  not  un 
common  thus  early  for  men  to  play  one  trade  into 
another,  as  where  a  cutler  who  sold  knives  and  razors 
took  in  exchange  the  skins  of  otters,  foxes  and  wild 
cats.  Paper  makers  gave  out  new  paper  for  old  rags. 
Coppersmiths  or  pewterers  would  offer  the  highest  price 
for  old  copper,  brass,  pewter  or  lead.  A  brushmaker 
took  hogs'  bristles  for  his  wares.  A  general  grocer, 
disposing  of  his  stock  of  goods,  first  offered  to  give  long 
credit  on  security ;  and  this  failing  to  stimulate  custom, 
he  proposed  further  to  take  "rum,  sugar,  molasses, 
coffee,  chocolate  or  cotton  wool"  in  payment. 

Tobacco  was  long  used  in  Virginia  with  great  satis 
faction  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  and  it  served  the 
people  well  in  the  War  for  Independence.  Provincial 
bills  of  credit,  however,  were  a  constant  source  of  con 
fusion,  mingled  with  the  Continental  loans  and  cur 
rency;  and  the  paper  emissions  of  our  thirteen  States 
during  the  exhaustive  strife  with  the  mother  country 
brought  such  disastrous  results  that  the  framers  of  our 
Federal  Constitution  prohibited  absolutely  the  issue  of 
State  bills  of  credit.  Provincial  paper  money,  poorly 
printed,  had  circulated  locally  in  these  colonies  in  place 
of  coin  long  before  the  Revolution.1  Great  perplexity 
arose  in  changing  permanently  our  money  denomina- 

^mong  things  stolen  from  him,  a  Philadelphia  advertiser  an 
nounced,  in  1769,  2  six-dollar  bills  in  Maryland  money,  3  fifteen- 
shilling  bills,  and  3  ten-shilling  bills;  also  a  five-shilling  bill, 
Newcastle  money,  with  a  person's  name  written  on  its  back. 
P.C. 


278  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

tion  from  pounds,  shillings,  pence  to  dollars  and  cents. 
Many  used  the  latter  mode  of  counting  while  yet  they 
were  British  subjects;  but  the  custom  varied  in  different 
provinces,  and  it  was  long  before  our  people,  as  a  whole, 
could  get  out  of  the  old  way  of  reckoning.1 


With  shops,  as  with  dwelling  houses,  in  colonial 
times,  there  was  no  precise  numbering  or  lettering, 
even  in  the  cities,  but  one's  situation  on  a  street  was 
identified  by  other  means  of  description.  One  adver 
tised  his  place  of  business  as  "close  by  the  town  house," 
"nearly  opposite"  Judge  C.'s  dwelling  or  some  desig 
nated  meeting-house,  "next  to"  D.'s  bake-house,  "cor 
ner  of  Winter  Street  and  opposite  the  lane,"  "Straw 
berry  Alley,  third  house  from  Market  Street,  and  nearly 
opposite  Mr.  Luke's  tavern,"  and  the  like.  Shop  signs 
were  not  common  which  gave  the  retailer's  personal 
name,  but  emblems,  rather,  were  used,  as  at  an  inn. 
One's  pursuit  was  carried  on  at  "the  lion  and  glove," 
"the  lock  and  key,"  "the  heart  and  glove,"  "the  blue 
ball"  or  "the  gold  ball,"  "the  bell  in  hand,"  "the  ship 
aground,"  "the  sun,"  "the  whale-bone,"  "the  tobacco 
pipe,"  "the  brazen  head,"  "the  lamb,"  "the  golden 
cock,"  "the  fan,"  "the  naked  boy,"  or  "the  three  doves." 
Of  such  devices  posterity  has  long  been  reminded  by 
the  tobacconist's  "Highlander"  or  "Indian"  and  "the 
golden  mortar  and  pestle"  of  the  apothecary.  The 

*About  1765,  the  money  used  in  New  York  consisted  of  silver, 
gold,  British  half  pence  (often  called  "coppers"),  and  bills  of 
credit.  Against  the  violence  of  a  mob,  which  lasted  several 
days,  the  leading  business  men  of  that  city  enforced  a  mutual 
agreement  to  require  14  coppers  to  a  shilling,  in  place  of  the 
12^  formerly  current,  so  as  to  conform  to  the  value  of  a  shil 
ling  in  neighboring  colonies. 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  279 

business  designation  itself  was  more  specific  and  techni 
cal,  in  many  cases,  than  we  find  it  nowadays,  for  one 
described  himself  as  a  glover,  a  fuller,  a  dyer,  a  mercer, 
a  draper,  a  haberdasher,  a  pewterer,  to  say  nothing  of 
other  names  in  the  vernacular  which  have  held  place 
better.  The  style  of  the  pursuit  clung  closely  to  the 
individual,  who,  less  cringing  and  obsequious  in  his 
pursuit,  perhaps,  than  after  the  London  fashion,  gave, 
nevertheless,  the  impression  of  knowing  his  place,  and 
not  intending  to  get  above  his  business  lest  his  business 
should  get  above  him.  All  this,  however,  was  subject 
to  disturbance  by  the  new  ideas  of  equal  opportunity 
and  rise  in  life  which  came  in  with  the  Declaration, 
stirring  the  old  fixity  of  American  conditions  into  a 
more  emulous  composite.  Most  shopping  was  done  by 
day,  and  only  grocers  and  druggists  kept  open  in  the 
evening. 

One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  those 
times  was  the  domestic  association  which  trade  pre 
sented,  whether  for  town  or  country.  In  Philadelphia, 
as  in  our  other  chief  centres  of  business,  men  kept  shop 
in  their  own  dwellings — a  custom  which  still  holds 
largely  true  of  London  and  Paris.  Such  dwellings  were 
usually  two  stories  in  height  and  only  moderately 
spacious ;  the  shop  seldom  occupied  the  whole  depth  of 
the  first  story,  but  was  chiefly  confined  to  the  usual 
front  rooms;  while  in  the  rear  and  overhead  lived  the 
tradesman  with  his  family.  Hence  was  it  that  wife 
or  children  waited  much  upon  customers,  and  the 
widow  not  seldom  continued  the  trade  of  her  late  hus 
band.  For  if  woman  had  not  yet  launched  into  that 
wider  range  of  professional  and  clerical  pursuits  with 
which  the  present  age  is  familiar,  she  took  at  least  a 
considerable  range  of  experience  in  those  smaller  in- 


280  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

dustries  which  kept  her  at  home.  In  shop-keeping  the 
sex  showed  much  business  capacity,  made  a  comfort 
able  living  for  the  family,  and  in  their  own  sphere  were 
respected.  Other  uses  were  made  of  the  domestic  prem 
ises  as  occasion  might  suggest;  and  in  the  pinch  of 
hard  times  we  see  tradespeople,  wholesale  and  retail, 
advertising  for  boarders  or  lodgers  or  to  let  their 
stables. 

The  same  domestic  and  business  combination,  let  us 
note,  applied  in  most  other  pursuits  of  life  at  that 
period.  Such,  to  this  day,  is  a  common  mode  of  living 
with  clergymen,  physicians,  dentists,  literary  writers 
and  those  who  take  private  pupils  for  instruction. 
Hotels  and  inns  are  thus  carried  on.  The  farmer's  life 
makes  home  and  family  its  base  of  operations.  Cob 
blers,  tailors,  dressmakers,  milliners,  small  tradesmen 
and  a  host  of  those  engaged  in  sedentary  pursuits  of 
the  humbler  kind  live  and  carry  on  their  work  sur 
rounded  by  wife  and  children,  and  enclosed  within  the 
wholesome  environ  of  home.  And  so  was  it,  far  more 
positively  and  universally,  in  America  during  the  simple 
colonial  and  Revolutionary  age.  They,  even,  whose 
pursuits  were  manufacturing  or  mechanical,  requiring 
special  workshops,  built  close  to  the  homestead  on  their 
own  private  acres,  and  the  sound  of  the  saw-mill  and 
grist-mill  was  heard  through  the  kitchen  windows. 
Even  distilleries  were  thus  carried  on ;  the  large  country 
store,  if  not  in  one's  own  dwelling,  was  at  all  events 
contiguous  to  it ;  and  many  a  lawyer  and  country  squire 
to  whom  his  fellow-townsmen  came  for  consultation 
had  a  detached  building,  which  he  called  his  office,  on 
the  same  lot  with  his  residence,  though  closer  to  the 
roadside.  Farmers,  when  landholders  besides,  are  pro 
verbially  a  sturdy  race,  lovers  of  freedom  and  virtuous ; 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  281 

and  a  people  whose  individual  homes  and  business  grow 
up  together  are  the  last  of  mankind  to  be  enslaved  or 
subjugated  by  a  foreign  oppressor. 


Of  the  learned  professions  in  those  days,  divinity 
took  precedence;  and  the  college-bred  men  who  ex 
pounded  the  tenets  of  the  provincial  Christian  faith  and 
set  a  godly  example  to  their  parishioners  had  an  abiding 
influence.  But  medicine  and  the  law,  despite  some  prac 
tical  drawbacks,  found  their  votaries  here  among  the 
rising  generation.  Medical  schools  in  Philadelphia  and 
New  York  opened  the  way  for  our  native-born  to  prac 
tise,  while  other  young  men  of  talent  and  ambition  in 
the  chief  provinces  sought  distinction  at  the  bar.  "In 
no  country,  perhaps,  in  the  world,"  wrote  Burke  in 
1775,  "is  the  law  so  generally  a  study.  The  pro 
fession  itself  is  numerous  and  powerful,  and  in  most 
provinces  it  takes  the  lead.  The  greater  number  of  the 
deputies  sent  to  Congress  were  lawyers."  And  so, 
we  may  add,  did  the  later  exigencies  of  Revolution  keep 
our  patriot  lawyers  at  the  front.  For  the  study  of  the 
law,  as  Burke  has  observed,  "renders  men  acute,  in 
quisitive,  dexterous,  prompt  in  attack,  ready  in  defence, 
full  of  resources,"  and  with  their  innate  love  of  free 
dom,  men  of  this  intelligent  profession  prove  powerful 
when  assailed.1 

Architects,  surveyors,  bankers,  brokers  pursued  their 
several  callings  in  those  times  after  the  prevalent 
fashion.  Our  bankers  and  brokers  dealt  chiefly  in  loans 
at  interest  upon  mortgage,  bottomry  or  pledge,  and  dis 
counted  the  bills,  bonds  and  notes  of  private  individuals. 
The  term  "intelligence  office"  was  used  in  those  days  to 

JII  Burke's  Works,  125. 


282  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

denote  a  general  brokerage  in  goods,  wares  and  mer 
chandise,  such  as  merged  readily  into  pawnbroking, 
with  its  secrecy  and  despatch.  But  by  1773  we  see  set 
up  at  Boston  a  general  register  office  "to  meet  a  great 
inconvenience  of  masters  and  mistresses/'  and  out  of 
this  grew,  probably,  the  "intelligence  office"  as  we 
understand  that  term  at  the  present  day.  Scriveners, 
conveyancers  and  scouts  were  found  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  legal  profession;  and  we  read  of  a  notary  in 
Philadelphia  who  offered  to  translate  or  draft  any 
French  or  Spanish  writing,  and  eked  out  his  income 
by  carrying  on  a  reading  and  writing  school. 


Besides  the  home  or  domestic  attribute  of  which  most 
callings  in  that  early  era  partook,  we  should  recall  the 
personal  and  individual  character  of  trade  and  the  pro 
fessions  alike.  Joint-stock  companies  or  corporations 
had  hardly  yet  a  footing  in  England  or  America,  and 
chartered  monopolies,  even  for  banking,  were  almost 
unknown,  save  in  a  rare  connection  with  public  opera 
tions  like  the  Bank  of  England.  Whether  a  business 
was  conducted  in  the  name  of  factor  or  principal  in 
those  days,  the  capital  was  commonly  furnished  and 
risked  by  some  individual,  and  individual  liability  as 
well  as  individual  enterprise  embarked  in  it.  Men  pur 
sued  their  plans  of  life  with  a  moderate  capital.  What 
ever  one  placed  in  trade  or  finance,  he  managed  or 
supervised  himself.  The  added  capital  furnished  by 
an  outsider  was  simply  borrowed  money,  for  the  most 
part,  with  or  without  security,  and  one  was  bound  to 
repay  it  like  his  other  obligations.  He  might  associate 
with  him  a  partner;  but  partnership  and  single  pursuit 
risked  alike  all  that  one  had  in  the  world,  and  both 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  283 

self-interest  and  the  dread  of  imprisonment  for  debt 
or  of  bankruptcy  kept  one  sedulous  to  protect  his  credit. 
Successful,  on  the  one  hand,  or  failing  disastrously, 
on  the  other,  our  merchant  was  swayed  to  the  side  of 
moderation;  he  sought  a  moderate  business,  a  modest 
competence,  moderate  profits.  There  might  be  com 
petition,  but  no  one  in  the  community  was  strong 
enough  to  drive  out  all  rivals  and  engross  the  oppor 
tunities  for  himself.  Partnerships,  too,  consisted  largely 
of  family  relations,  and  the  father  meant  to  hand  down 
his  business  to  his  son,  as  in  the  European  days  of  fixed 
conditions  in  life. 

In  manufactures,  at  this  age,  American  progress  was 
that  of  an  active  and  ingenious  though  undeveloped 
population.  Needful  construction  from  the  trees  and 
soil  products  about  them  was  the  settlers'  first  concern. 
Nothing  shows  better  the  stage  reached  in  comforts 
and  luxuries  at  any  time  than  the  style  of  a  people's 
habitations.  Saw-mills  came  early  into  vogue.  From 
rude  huts  and  dwellings  our  colonists  gradually  ad 
vanced  to  buildings,  public  and  private,  of  fair  archi 
tectural  pattern;  though  for  doors,  window  sashes  and 
the  finer  products  of  the  joiner  they  relied  mostly  upon 
master  workmen  in  the  mother  country,  who  dressed 
imported  lumber  and  sent  it  back  fashioned  for  its  uses. 
Shipbuilding  was  another  early  occupation  of  our  col 
onists,  fostered  by  the  universal  zeal  for  fishing  and 
cruising;  and  this  may  be  pronounced  the  first  great 
manual  industry  established  on  this  coast,  being  recog 
nized,  in  fact,  as  highly  important,  a  whole  century 
before  we  declared  our  independence.  So,  too,  in 
carriages  and  furniture  of  the  common  and  simple  pat 
tern  colonial  America  made  rapid  progress.  Our  use 


284  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

of  metals  was  primitive.  Native  iron  was  worked  up 
into  kitchen  utensils  and  the  simpler  implements  of 
farming.  The  art  of  native  pottery  was  turned  to  good 
account.  But  the  better  sort  of  table  outfit,  good  axes 
and  steel  hardware  were  mostly  imported.  In  short, 
American  industry  catered  to  the  common  wants  of 
our  common  people,  and  essayed  little  to  attract  the 
custom  of  the  high  bred  and  fastidious. 

But  in  textiles,  more  particularly,  our  colonies  were 
kept  dependent  on  the  mother  country  by  the  artful 
policy  which  British  manufacturers  had  impressed 
upon  the  King  and  Parliament  for  their  own  constant 
advantage.  For  all  fabric-weaving  machines,  as  well 
as  for  fabricated  goods,  the  rule  of  the  mother  country 
was  to  make  and  keep  her  colonies  in  this  new  world 
dependent  upon  her  to  the  utmost.  Our  colonists 
brought  over  with  them  early  the  spinning-wheel  and 
hand  loom ;  and  the  weaving  of  homespun  clothing  was 
one  of  those  farm  occupations  which,  like  knitting  and 
sewing,  engaged  the  female  members  of  a  family  and 
wedded  each  small  manufacture  so  long  to  the  house 
hold.  For  the  primitive  home  market  of  a  people  is 
the  individual  home.  We  had  also  the  fulling-mill  for 
felting  and  compacting  woven  fabrics. 

Down  almost  to  the  very  date  of  American  inde 
pendence  the  machinery  for  clothing  our  inhabitants 
was  nearly  as  simple  as  that  of  the  feudal  ages.  Rude 
water-power  turned  our  saw-mills  or  ground  the  miller's 
corn;  rude  hand-power  or  horse-power  accomplished 
most  other  work  of  the  mechanical  kind.  Not  until 
about  1775,  or  the  battle  of  Lexington,  was  the  Watt 
steam  engine  first  set  in  successful  operation  in  Great 
Britain ;  so  that  steam  motive  power — that  giant  force 
which  has  changed  completely  the  material  operations 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  285 

of  modern  society — post-dates,  in  reality,  our  colonial 
era.  Moreover,  as  we  should  recall,  it  was  the  decade 
1760-70  which  first  brought  out  in  Great  Britain  the 
new  inventions  in  textile  weaving;  and  so  jealous  were 
English  manufacturers  of  those  years  over  their  novel 
experiments  that  all  export  of  the  new  machines  to 
America  was  strictly  forbidden,  nor  was  even  the 
migration  of  workmen  who  knew  how  to  construct  and 
operate  them  permitted.  In  various  other  ways  trade 
in  these  colonies  had  been  hampered  from  time  to  time 
by  stringent  acts  of  Parliament,  with  the  like  intent  of 
enriching  home  merchants  and  manufacturers  at  our 
expense.  Hence  it  may  be  fitly  said  that  America's 
Revolution  was  a  parallel  revolution,  both  political  and 
industrial,  in  point  of  time. 

As  an  instance  of  colonial  enterprise  in  that  century, 
a  coarse  but  comfortable  hat  had  come  into  fashion, 
of  native  make,  for  which  a  market  was  opened  in  the 
British  West  Indies.  But  Parliament  stopped  that 
trade  short  by  a  prohibition;  and  the  Crown  in  1767 
issued  strict  orders  to  watch  all  vessels  arriving  from 
New  England,  New  York  or  Philadelphia  in  the  West 
Indian  ports,  and  to  detect  all  attempts  at  selling  Ameri 
can  hats  and  enforce  the  penalties  of  the  law.  In  the 
earlier  days  of  peaceful  submission  America's  profit  had 
been  not  so  much  in  any  fostering  care  exercised  by  the 
mother  country  as  by  what  Burke  styled  "a  wise  and 
salutary  neglect,"  which  had  allowed  intelligent  in 
dustry  in  these  colonies  to  take  its  own  way  toward 
perfection. 

The  non-importation  leagues  formed  here  in  1767 
were  a  fitting  response  to  the  new  policy  now  entered 
upon  by  the  King  and  Parliament.  Such  retaliating 


286  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

combination  was  not  alone  for  increasing  our  corre 
sponding  trade  and  manufactures,  but  largely  for 
alleviating  by  self-denial  the  inevitable  distress  of  our 
people.  The  New  England  and  middle  colonies,  which 
chiefly  practised  the  new  policy,  were  greatly  in  debt, 
and  economy  was  needful.  They  had  no  great  staples 
to  export,  like  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  for  main 
taining  their  resources  and  soothing  the  oppressor.  A 
resolve  passed  by  the  Massachusetts  General  Court 
early  in  I7681  carefully  avoided  all  expression  offensive 
to  royal  authority,  and  urged  as  leading  considerations 
for  a  non-importation  policy  the  great  decay  of  trade  in 
that  province,  the  scarcity  of  money,  the  heavy  debt 
contracted  in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  which  was 
still  unpaid,  and  the  great  difficulties  to  which  our 
people  were  reduced.  Yet  the  production  of  home 
manufactures  was  kept  likewise  in  view. 

Our  Northern  colonies,  indeed,  suffered  great  de 
pression  at  the  date  of  Parliament's  fatal  experiment 
of  taxation;  and  it  is  only  just  to  add  that  England 
herself  was  similarly  impoverished,  not  only  because 
of  that  same  war,  which  had  involved  the  struggle  of 
France  and  Great  Britain  for  supremacy  in  the  New 
World,  but  through  temporary  embarrassments,  be 
sides,  of  her  East  India  venture,  which  threatened  home 
bankruptcy  and  failure.  Once  aroused,  our  native  zeal 
and  energy  turned  sedulous  attention  to  the  develop 
ment  here  of  a  home  market.  The  breed  of  native 
sheep  was  encouraged,  and  the  people  passed  local  re 
solves  not  to  buy  lambs  nor  to  kill  early,  so  that  native 
wool  might  be  grown  and  the  poor  employed.  A  New 
York  society  "for  promoting  arts"  voted  premiums  to 
such  as  should  spin  the  most  linen  yarn  in  course  of 
'See  I  M.  G.,  1767,  1768. 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS  287 

a  year,  knit  the  greatest  number  of  stockings,  keep 
the  neatest  beehives  or  make  the  best  cheeses.  Patriots 
of  the  middle  colonies  voted  not  to  buy  foreign  beer,  but 
to  patronize  the  breweries  of  Philadelphia  and  Balti 
more.  Among  ingenious  experiments  of  those  times 
was  one  of  preparing  flax  so  as  to  resemble  cotton  in 
whiteness,  softness  and  coherency;  and  another  of 
making  cloth  out  of  hop  stalks.  Pennsylvania  stimu 
lated  by  bounties  the  cultivation  of  mulberry  trees  for 
rearing  the  silkworm;  and  for  Pennsylvania's  emula 
tion,  Franklin  held  up  China  to  notice  as  a  country 
whose  prolific  people  went  about  cheaply  and  durably 
clad  in  silk  clothing. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  our  colonial  Whigs,  in  their 
earnestness  to  make  effective  their  own  plans  of  resist 
ance  to  the  mother  country,  suffered  not  fools  gladly, 
nor  endured  with  patience  the  indifference  or  non- 
compliance  of  Tory  fellow-citizens.  Sons  of  Liberty 
published  the  names  of  those  who  chose  to  import  in 
violation  of  the  public  agreement,  and  denounced  the 
social  excommunication  of  such  offenders,  or,  as  we 
would  say  in  our  own  day,  declared  a  boycott  against 
them.  Methods  of  compulsion  practised  by  one  hostile 
class  of  the  community  against  another  vary  not  radi 
cally  from  age  to  age.  But  the  non-importation  prin 
ciple  had  broad  justifying  grounds  aside  from  all  pres 
ent  intent  of  retaliation.  And  in  all  ages  of  tyranny 
and  coercion  on  the  part  of  a  parent  government,  the 
refusal  of  the  oppressed  to  buy  or  consume  the  wares 
and  products  of  those  at  whose  greedy  instigation  the 
dangerous  policy  of  commercial  monopoly  has  been 
entered  upon  is  the  simplest,  safest  and  one  of  the  surest 
means  of  effective  resistance. 


XIX 

PROVINCIAL   POLITICS 

LET  us  now  inquire  what  free  political  parties, 
if  any,  existed  in  America  in  the  latest  colonial 
years,  popular  in  their  scope  and  open  in  their 
appeals  for  public  support.  Party  divisions  originate 
in  human  nature  and  grow  with  the  free  expression  of 
self-government ;  party  spirit  flames  brightest  and  hot 
test  in  a  commonwealth  or  community  where  open 
patriotic  concert  may  achieve  an  efficient  direction  in 
affairs.  During  the  earlier  period  of  our  colonization, 
and  while  the  mother  country  either  neglected  her 
offspring  or  was  distracted  by  her  own  civil  tumult  over 
the  Stuarts  and  Cromwell,  American  politics  developed 
daringly,  and  the  body  of  settlers  in  each  colony  gained 
from  the  set  to  whom  chartered  privileges  had  first  been 
granted  various  popular  concessions  in  the  direction  of 
equal  political  rights.  In  Massachusetts,  without  any 
express  royal  license,  the  people  chose  their  own  rulers. 
It  was  after  the  compact  of  Crown  and  Parliament 
which  settled  the  line  of  William  and  Mary  that  our 
politics  sank  into  a  placid  and  subsidiary  condition, 
under  an  astute  management  from  abroad,  which  kept 
the  colonies  locally  disunited  for  over  seventy  years, 
and  until  the  Stamp  Act  experiment  aroused  strong 
opposition. 

Roundheads  and  Cavaliers  had,  meanwhile,   given 
place  on  British  soil  to  the  national  party  division  of 


PROVINCIAL  POLITICS  289 

"Whigs"  and  "Tories."  The  latter  distinguishing 
terms  were  long  in  vogue  there;  and  so,  too,  following 
the  parental  fashion,  were  they  in  these  cis-Atlantic 
provinces.  "In  every  colony,"  writes  John  Adams  in 
1812,  "divisions  always  prevailed.  In  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Massachusetts  and  all  the  rest 
a  court  and  country  party  have  always  contended. 
Whig  and  Tory  disputed  very  sharply  before  the  Revo 
lution,  and  in  every  step  during  the  Revolution."1  This 
positive  statement  is  corroborated  by  other  testimony 
of  our  Revolutionary  fathers.  Yet  narrow  and  crooked 
enough  were  the  channels  through  which  coursed  native 
politics  while  our  provincial  interests  were  kept  apart, 
and  the  grand  ideas  of  an  independent  Confederation, 
of  a  union  irreconcilable  with  British  sovereignty,  re 
mained  in  embryo. 


We  at  this  day,  who  vote  freely  and  frequently  to 
gether  without  requirement  of  rank  or  property  for 
exercising  the  right,  and  who  elect  our  chief  magis 
trate,  our  chief  executive  subordinates  and  even  our 
judges,  as  well  as  representatives  in  both  branches  of 
the  legislature,  and  the  local  county,  town  or  city 
functionaries,  should  recall  that  the  elective  franchise 
in  those  early  times  was  far  more  restricted  in  its  exer 
cise.  For,  first  of  all,  with  negro  slavery  nominally 
existing  to  1776  or  later  in  all  the  colonies,  and  white 
bondage,  besides,  to  a  considerable  extent,2  the  voter, 
a  male  inhabitant  twenty-one  years  or  more  in  age, 
must  have  been  a  freeman  or  "free  white  man,"  at  the 
least.  More  than  this,  only  "freeholders,"  or  those 

*X  John   Adams's  Works,   23. 
2See  Chapter  II. 


290  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

owning  real  estate,  possessed  the  suffrage  at  all  in  vari 
ous  Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  while  Massachusetts 
and  Maryland  each  fixed  a  property  qualification  in 
lands  or  personalty  as  indispensable.  Only  Pennsyl 
vania,  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut — colonies  treated 
by  British  kings  with  marked  favor  in  their  respective 
charters — bestowed  the  suffrage  liberally  in  those  times 
upon  freemen,  or  at  least  free  taxpayers.  In  these  and 
some  minor  respects  colonial  laws  varied. 

Nor  as  to  the  rulers  to  be  voted  for  was  the  method 
at  that  day  a  liberal  one.  In  most  of  these  colonies, 
as  in  Great  Britain,  the  range  of  a  voter's  choice  was 
confined  to  officials  of  his  own  town  or  county,  and  to 
sending,  moreover,  from  among  neighbors  and  fellow- 
citizens  such  as  might  represent  his  little  community 
annually  in  the  legislature.  This  meant  scarcely  more, 
in  practical  effect,  than  local  self-government,  pure  and 
simple.  Municipalities  governed  by  mayor,  aldermen 
and  councilmen  scarce  existed,  but  selectmen  and  the 
petty  local  officers  down  to  hog-reeve  comprised  the 
usual  list.  This  was  about  all.  In  only  two  colonies 
out  of  all  the  thirteen,  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
had  chartered  voters  the  right  to  choose  all  colonial 
officials,  the  governor  and  council  included.  Massa 
chusetts  had  once  exercised  such  popular  functions  by 
forcing  the  phraseology  of  her  original  charter;  but 
that  from  William  and  Mary  which  replaced  it  gave 
only  a  modified  right  of  choosing  the  governor's  coun 
cil,  through  a  selection  by  the  legislature  itself,  then 
styled  the  General  Court.  In  Pennsylvania  and  Mary 
land,  under  proprietary  grants,  were  hereditary  rulers 
of  the  Penn  or  Calvert  families,  who,  as  overlords  and 
absentees,  drew  an  income  from  the  inhabitants  and 
appointed  each  his  resident  lieutenant-governor  with 


PROVINCIAL  POLITICS  291 

the  royal  sanction.  In  all  but  four,  then,  of  these 
thirteen  colonies  the  royal  government  was  really  pro 
vincial,  and  the  governor  himself,  the  King's  vice 
gerent,  was  appointed  and  recalled  at  pleasure  by  the 
Crown.  Nor  did  the  colonial  legislatures  (except  for 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts)  repre 
sent  the  subject  people,  except  in  a  single  branch,  such 
as  Virginia's  House  of  Burgesses.  For  the  council, 
so  called,  that  germ  of  our  modern  State  Senate — with 
functions,  then  secretly  exercised,  which  blended  execu 
tive  and  legislative  authority — was  a  royal  or  propri 
etary  adjunct  of  British  rule  like  the  governor  himself. 
Members  of  this  council  or  upper  house  were  generally 
selected,  under  royal  sanction,  from  among  influential 
persons  of  the  colony,  legal,  financial  and  military,  and 
were  held  bound  by  fees  and  salaries  to  regard  the  local 
interests  of  the  Crown;  their  approval,  with  that,  be 
sides,  of  the  provincial  governor,  was  indispensable  to 
give  measures  of  the  popular  house  the  force  of  laws. 
Nor  this  alone,  for  the  King  usually  reserved  a  final 
veto  upon  all  the  legislation  of  each  colony.  Judges 
held  their  commissions  by  executive  appointment,  or 
in  some  instances  were  chosen  by  the  legislature;  but 
never  in  those  times  were  they  elected  by  the  people. 

Even  for  the  legislature  itself  representation  was  not 
popular,  in  our  modern  sense  of  the  word,  but  the  town 
or  county  unit  supplied,  as  such,  its  whole  delegation. 
By  this  means  was  fostered  local  pride  rather  than  the 
numerical  rule  by  a  census.  Less  than  a  century  later 
the  colonial  charters  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
so  much  vaunted  for  their  democracy  in  this  earlier  age 
that  they  were  long  kept  intact  in  place  of  independent 
State  constitutions,  were  denounced  and  struggled 
against  almost  to  the  point  of  rebellion,  not  only  be- 


292  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

cause  the  voter's  franchise  became  antiquated  in  its 
limitation,  but  by  reason  of  the  travesty  upon  popular 
consent  which  ensued  by  the  time  that  great  growing 
cities  and  dwindling  rustic  hamlets  became  classed 
numerically  in  the  same  rigid  category  for  representa 
tive  vote  and  influence.  Equality  of  political  rights  is 
the  ideal  of  every  advancing  commonwealth  in  a  coun 
try  like  ours ;  but  as  years  roll  on  the  liberality  of  the 
past  becomes  the  irksome  exclusiveness  of  the  present, 
and  all  true  republics  tend  to  the  rule  of  numbers. 

And  so,  once  more,  in  contemporary  modes  of 
suffrage,  the  age  I  am  describing  favored  strong 
families  and  the  ascendancy  of  an  upper  class  in  society 
to  an  extent  which  in  our  own  day  American  States 
would  not  tolerate.  Bribery  and  coercion  were  the 
open  accompaniments  of  election  in  the  British  Isle, 
especially  when  members  of  Parliament  were  to  be 
chosen,  and  though  little  prevalent  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean,  such  abuses  were  closely  incident  to  the  polling 
methods  then  prevalent.  In  our  own  day,  great  stakes 
at  issue  in  patronage  and  great  corporate  wealth  and 
social  complexity  foster  corruption ;  yet  the  better  regu 
lation  of  the  suffrage  supplies  a  corrective.  The  ancient 
hustings,  the  show  of  hands,  the  open  declaration  of  a 
voter's  preferences,  amid  pugilistic  confusion,  coarse 
ribaldry  and  the  rowdyish  marshalling  of  party  ad 
herents  we  seldom  witness  at  an  election  nowadays; 
but  ballots,  officially  printed  and  furnished,  voting  lists 
and  the  well-guarded  ballot-box  protect  in  our  day  the 
voter's  secret  and  personal  choice. 


The  old  English  method  of  oral  or  viva  vocc  vote 
prevailed  in  America  during  colonial  times,  and  New 


PROVINCIAL  POLITICS  293 

England's  town-meeting  discussion  or  the  open-air 
stump  speaking  and  joint  debate  in  Virginia  favored 
such  courageous  assertion  of  one's  civic  preference. 
But  voting  by  the  ballot  had  come  gradually  into  vogue 
in  America,  first  for  religious  congregations  and  next 
for  secular  gatherings;  so  that  our  commonwealths  by 
,^1776  were  found  discordant  in  preferences  on  this 
point  when  forming  their  several  State  governments. 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Georgia  pronounced  at  once  for  the  ballot, 
while  most  of  the  remaining  colonies  showed  their  ad 
herence  still  to  the  ancient  oral  method  of  their  fore 
fathers.  So  strenuous,  indeed,  did  Virginia  continue,  with 
the  child  of  her  loins,  Kentucky,  for  the  old  method  of 
standing  up  like  men  to  be  counted,  that  as  late  as  1850 
those  two  commonwealths  announced  in  newly  drafted 
constitutions,  dramatically  and  somewhat  humorously, 
that  in  all  elections,  whether  by  the  people  or  the  legis 
lature,  "the  votes  shall  be  personally  and  publicly  given 
viva  voce,  provided  that  dumb  persons  entitled  to 
suffrage  may  vote  by  ballot." 

In  provincial  New  York  the  oral  mode  of  voting  had 
prevailed  from  the  earliest  times;  but  by  1770  a  strong 
popular  current  set  toward  substituting  the  ballot,  and 
controversy  became  heated  on  this  subject.  Many 
voters  complained  that  they  were  intimidated  at  the 
polls  by  employers  and  those  of  superior  influence  in  the 
community,  with  whom  it  rested  to  favor  or  oppress; 
and  hence  they  wished  to  vote  secretly.  "Many  of  the 
poorer  people,"  they. contended,  "feel  deeply  the  aristo 
cratic  power,  or  rather  the  intolerable  tyranny,  of  the 
great  and  opulent,  who  openly  threaten  them  with  loss 
of  employment  and  arrest  for  debt  unless  they  give  their 
votes  as  desired."  But  opponents  argued  that  to  dare 


294  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

and  choose  to  speak  their  minds  freely  was  "their  birth 
right  as  Englishmen  and  their  glory  as  freemen."  At 
a  public  meeting  called  that  year  in  New  York  City  to 
discuss  this  question,  the  ballot  mode  was  voted  down, 
and  those  present  pronounced  by  a  large  majority  their 
approbation  of  the  old  mode  of  viva  voce — this,  how 
ever,  we  should  observe,  by  taking  their  vote  after  the 
very  method  objected  to.  Resolutions  of  instruction 
to  the  provincial  legislature  followed,  which  declared : 
(i)  That  the  ballot  was  a  dangerous  innovation,  di 
rectly  contrary  to  the  old  laws  and  customs  of  the  realm 
and  unknown  to  any  British  government  on  this  con 
tinent.  (2)  That  its  use  was  an  implicit  surrender  of 
one  of  the  most  invaluable  privileges  of  Englishmen — 
that  of  declaring  one's  sentiments  openly  on  all  occa 
sions,  instead  of  by  secret  and  clandestine  expressions. 
( 3 )  That  the  argument  of  delivering  the  poor  from  the 
influential  rich  is  delusive  and  fallacious,  since  no  honest 
man  will  sell  his  birthright.  (4)  That  the  right  of 
ballot  opens  doors  to  fraud,  and  that  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Connecticut,  where  elections  have  constantly  been 
by  ballot,  frauds  are  more  and  more  complained  of 
which  scrutiny  does  not  detect.  (5)  That  ballot  will 
destroy  the  right  of  the  majority  and  introduce  con 
fusion  ;  for  no  one  will  offer  himself  as  a  candidate,  nor 
can  there  ever  be  a  determinate  number  of  candidates 
where  whim  may  guide  the  choice.  (6)  That  it  will 
encourage  hypocrisy  and  deceit  and  prevent  laudable 
zeal.  (7)  That  thereby  too  much  is  intrusted  to  the 
scrutiny  and  count  of  some  returning  officer.1  But 
while  those  who  stood  for  keeping  the  old  colonial  cus 
tom  unchanged  prevailed  on  this  occasion — "the 
mighty,  the  rich,  the  big-wigs  and  square  toes/'  as  it 
JM.  G.,  January  18,  1770. 


PROVINCIAL  POLITICS  295 

was  said — controversy  would  not  down ;  and  voting  re 
form  made  such  progress  with  other  Revolutionary 
ideas  that  the  framers  of  New  York's  State  constitution 
in  1777  concluded  to  try  the  written  ballot,  simply  as 
a  novel  and  experimental  substitute,  and  subject  to  the 
final  discretion  of  the  legislature.  "Among  divers  of 
the  good  people/'  observes  that  notable  instrument,  the 
opinion  is  prevalent  that  voting  by  ballot  "would  tend 
more  to  preserve  the  liberty  and  equal  freedom  of  the 
people"  than  the  oral  mode.1 


We  are  to  conclude,  then,  that  in  our  Revolutionary 
era  American  politics,  so  far  as  the  common  voter  was 
concerned,  took  a  narrow  range,  and  consisted  mostly 
in  local  home  rule.  In  that  particular  the  New  England 
town  meeting  for  town  government  afforded  the  most 
admirable  epitome  of  a  democracy  which  the  world  had 
ever  witnessed;  coequality  among  fellow-citizens  here 
prevailing,  so  far  as  coequality  could  consist  at  all, 
and  the  idea  of  practical  co-operation  in  local  public 
affairs  being  strongly  presented,  while  at  the  same  time 
was  supplied  a  school  for  politics  where  public  dis 
cussion,  public  oratory  and  public  influence  might  mould 
political  leadership  in  earnest.  The  county  grouping  of 
the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies  gave  far  less  political 
directness.  Our  development  westward,  over  the  sur 
face  of  a  continent,  has  since  somewhat  modified  the 
original  type  in  a  civilization  which  commingles  the 
blood  of  the  primitive  settlers  and  infuses  foreign  ele 
ments  besides ;  and  nowadays  we  have  to  confront  the 

^e  may  note  that  our  early  ballots  were  written,  not  printed, 
and  that  upon  the  penning  of  the  voter's  choice  were  based 
some  lesser  objections  to  the  new  method. 


296  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

swarming  of  our  composite  population  into  great 
hives  of  industry,  whence  issue  those  monstrous 
municipalities,  hard  to  regulate,  whose  problems  of 
self-rule  are  difficult  and  whose  administrators  slip 
too  easily  into  the  mire  of  misgovernment  and 
corruption.  But  the  New  England  town  meeting 
serves  still  the  choice  American  model  for  self-rule 
by  the  people,  wherever  communities  are  not  too 
vast  or  too  incongruous  to  apply  it,  modified  or 
unmodified. 

Beyond  and  outside  the  circumference  of  local  home 
rule,  all  was  representative  for  the  individual  citizen 
in  these  early  times,  except  in  fortunate  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut.  The  voter  took  part  in  choosing  the 
person  or  persons  who  should  represent  his  town  or 
county  in  the  legislature,  which  generally  meant  in  a 
House  of  Commons;  for  where,  as  in  Pennsylvania, 
there  was  no  governor's  council  at  all,  the  colonial  legis 
lature  had  not  two  branches.  All  elections  were  annual, 
for  "where  annual  elections  end  tyranny  begins,"  as 
our  ancestors  used  to  say.  Here  the  voter's  discretion 
ended ;  and  whatever  of  official  patronage  the  King,  the 
royal  governor  or  the  proprietor  might  not  control,  the 
legislature  absorbed  for  itself.  When,  therefore,  our 
commonwealths  expelled,  in  1776,  all  royal  prerogative 
and  authority,  governors,  judges  and  the  rest  received 
in  most  States  their  new  commissions  not  from  the 
people,  but,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  representatives 
of  the  people.  Even  delegates  to  the  Continental  Con 
gress  were  chosen  by  the  several  State  legislatures. 
And  thus  came  it  about  that  when  the  Federal  Con 
stitution  was  framed  for  our  more  perfect  union,  and 
an  executive  established  for  the  first  time  for  all  these 
States  combined,  delegates  in  the  convention  of  1787 


PROVINCIAL  POLITICS  297 

thought  the  selection  of  a  President  of  the  United 
States  by  the  people  would  be  like  referring  the  choice 
of  colors  to  a  blind  man ;  and  after  barely  escaping  the 
alternative  of  a  choice  by  one  or  both  Houses  of 
Congress,  they  congratulated  themselves  when  the 
expedient  of  electoral  colleges  was  brought  forward. 
This,  they  thought,  would  lift  the  momentous  choice 
of  a  nation's  chief  executive  above  both  people 
and  Congress.  It  was  not,  therefore,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  as  now,  public  opinion  or  the  manifested 
will  of  the  people  which  was  trusted  to  dominate 
in  the  broad  affairs  of  government  so  much  as  the 
people's  representatives  at  their  own  delegated  dis 
cretion. 

Under  such  conditions,  political  parties,  such  as  we 
know  them  in  our  own  times,  could  have  had  but  little 
range  for  combination  or  discipline  among  those  who 
lived  still  earlier  the  tame  colonial  life.  Parties,  at  all 
events,  were  local  in  scope,  or,  at  the  most,  provincial. 
Conventions  played  an  active  part  in  Revolutionary 
times;  but  these  were  bodies  of  delegates  fresh  from 
the  whole  people,  with  fundamental  credentials  for 
making  fundamental  changes.  They,  too,  were  repre 
sentative  bodies,  and  for  Continental  matters  the  legis 
lature  usually  chose.  Of  party  conventions  for  nom 
inating  party  candidates  America  knew  nothing  then, 
nor  for  a  long  time  later.  Political  conferences,  when 
ever  held,  bore  rather  the  style  of  caucus;  such  con 
ferences  were  usually  secret  and  close;  and  of  caucus 
clubs  and  king  caucus,  political  leaders  in  our  several 
colonies  were  made  aware  long  before  the  fateful  year 
of  the  Stamp  Act.1  It  was  a  legislative  caucus  that 
largely  led  in  provincial  politics.  More  than  this,  Con 
gee  e.  g.,  John  Adams's  Diary,  1763. 


298  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

gressional  caucuses  nominated  Presidents  and  Vice- 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  for  more  than  thirty 
years  after  this  Union  was  set  in  operation,  and  until 
the  people  would  submit  to  such  tutelage  no  longer. 


XX 

SYMPTOMS    OF   INDEPENDENCE 

WITH  the  great  Revolutionary  struggle  of 
our  eighteenth  century  confined  to 
Britain's  thirteen  provinces  on  the  At 
lantic  seaboard,  from  the  Maine  district  of  Massachu 
setts  to  Georgia,  and  with  the  whole  British  occupancy 
north  of  that  extreme  boundary  or  southward  among 
the  tropical  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  destined  to 
continue  as  before,  we  behold  in  this  rebellious  area  ex 
tending  westward  toward  the  Alleghanies,  provincial 
traits,  originating  in  a  separate  colonial  experience  and 
a  separate  immigration;  yet  blending  speedily  into  a 
unified  concert  of  action,  to  which  common  blood,  for 
the  most  part,  common  language  and  lineage,  a  com 
mon  consuetudinary  law,  and  common  systems  alike  of 
religion,  education  and  politics,  gave  strong  impulse. 
The  homogeneousness  of  our  Eastern  section  is 
memorized,  not  only  by  that  familiar  synonym  "New 
England,"  still  largely  applied  to  it,  but  in  the  term 
"Yankee,"  which  British  redcoats  at  Boston,  we  are 
told,  used  in  derision  toward  them  before  the  fight  of 
Bunker  Hill.  For  while  "Yankee" — a  corruption,  per 
haps,  of  "English,"  as  the  Indians  or  Indian-French 
pronounced  that  word — was  used  in  colonial  times  by 
New  Englanders  themselves  by  way  of  compliment  to 
their  own  talents,  it  was  the  jeering  strain  of  "Yankee 
Doodle"  (or  the  "Yankee  fool"),  riding  to  town  on  his 


300  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

improvised  war  steed,  a  mounted  and  ill-dressed  min 
ute-man,  that  flouted  him  in  contrast  with  the  king's 
officers,  well  equipped  and  uniformed  in  gorgeous  red. 
The  real  "macaroni,"  by  the  way  (or  fine  fellows),  of 
our  continentals,  whose  dress  befitted  a  martial  occa 
sion,  were  in  a  Maryland  regiment,  which  came  to  the 
succor  of  these  brethren.1  America's  Revolution  bred 
certainly  a  new  turn  to  the  song,  and  they  who  were 
once  ridiculed  by  a  nickname  made  it  their  title  of  dis 
tinction.  Men  have  won,  before  and  since,  in  religion 
and  politics  by  such  a  sign.  "Yankee  Doodle"  was 
played  in  triumph  by  New  England  musicians  at  Bur- 
goyne's  surrender.  The  name  "Yankee"  overspread 
later  this  continent,  in  the  western  sweep  of  New  Eng 
land's  keen  and  aggressive  intellect,  until  in  another 
century  the  name  became  applied  by  America  to  the 
whole  free  North  that  fought  in  our  Civil  War,  and 
by  Europe  to  the  whole  United  States  as  a  nation. 

Such,  then,  were  the  northeastern  commonwealths 
when  colonial  vassalage  was  shaken  off,  albeit  they  had 
their  own  minor  distinctions  from  one  another.  But 
the  middle  section,  though  defined  apart,  was  too  hetero 
geneous  in  its  European  elements  for  a  correspond 
ing  epithet  to  fit;  while  the  English-settled  South, 
homogeneous  once  more,  chiefly  by  reason  of  its  pecul 
iar  plantation  and  labor  systems,  showed  local  varie 
ties  of  type — the  proud  Virginian  predominating,— 
with  names  and  epithets  apart  which  have  not  well 
lasted. 

America's   thirteen    colonies    in    1776   kept   within 

TYet  some  have  opined  that  both  air  and  the  style  of  words 
antedate  our  Revolution  by  more  than  a  century,  and  that  the 
original  "Nankey  Doodle"  riding  on  a  pony  was  in  derision  of 
Cromwell  himself,  "Nankey"  being  changed  in  later  times  to 
"Yankee."  II  Lossing's  Field  Book,  683.  This  we  may  doubt. 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    301 

practical  reach  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  To  lands  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  both  north  and  south  of  the  Ohio 
River,  claims  ill-defined  were  made — by  Virginia  most 
notably,  and  by  other  British  colonies  besides.  But 
beyond  the  Alleghanies,  save  for  some  rough-and- 
ready  pioneers  from  Virginia  to  the  Kentucky  territory 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Ohio,  little  had  been  done 
under  sanction  of  the  mother  country  for  reclaiming 
the  vast  interior  wilderness.  That  whole  great  "coun 
try  of  the  Ohio,"  as  it  was  termed,  on  either  side  of  the 
saffron  river  to  its  junction  with  the  still  more  turbid 
flood  of  the  Mississippi,  had,  to  be  sure,  been  confirmed 
in  1763  to  Great  Britain,  by  the  peace  of  Paris  and  the 
surrender  of  French  dominion  therein;  but  little  at 
tention  was  paid  to  populating  this  extensive  valley 
while  England's  hold  upon  her  colonies  remained. 
Tracts  of  bounty  land  had,  however,  been  promised 
to  American  officers  and  soldiers,  loyal  co-operators  in 
the  French  and  Indian  War;  and  in  1772  we  see  Gen 
eral  Phineas  Lyman,  who  had  procured  a  Crown  patent 
at  London  after  much  lobbying  and  delay,  organizing 
at  Hartford  his  "company  of  military  adventurers," 
and  preparing  to  set  out  with  his  comrades  for  a  re 
mote  tract  of  land  at  the  southwest. 

Yet,  while  that  French  and  British  struggle  was  in 
progress,  Americans  had  foreseen  the  advantage  that 
would  redound  from  peopling  the  remote  interior  of 
this  continent.  Franklin  wrote  to  George  Whitefield, 
that  pioneer  of  Methodism,  in  July,  1756,  the  next  year 
after  Braddock's  defeat :  "I  sometimes  wish  that  you. 
and  I  were  jointly  employed  by  the  Crown  to  settle  a 
colony  on  the  Ohio.  .  .  .  What  a  glorious  thing  it 
would  be  to  settle  in  that  fine  country  a  large,  strong 
bod)  of  religious  and  industrious  people!  What  a 


302  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

security  to  the  other  colonies  and  advantage  to  Britain 
by  increasing  her  people,  territory,  strength  and  com 
merce!"1 


Touching  the  idiosyncrasies  of  these  thirteen  dis 
tinct  colonies,  whose  independent  confederation,  fol 
lowed  by  a  more  perfect  Union,  was  the  most  pregnant 
event  of  the  world's  history  during  that  eighteenth 
century,  I  may  recall  that  Virginia,  with  her  high 
born  pioneers  of  colonial  times,  was  largely  influenced 
by  a  lofty  pride — by  the  sentiment  of  honor,  generosity 
and  the  desire  to  lead — when  she  espoused  a  quarrel 
with  the  mother  country,  far  off  in  Massachusetts, 
which  touched  her  own  concerns  but  lightly.  It  was 
Virginia  who  pressed  upon  her  sister  colonies  the 
maxim  that  wrong  and  oppression  committed  upon  any 
one  of  the  thirteen  colonies  was  a  wrong  to  them  all, 
and  should  be  resented  unitedly.  More  passionately, 
but  with  a  like  chivalrous  sense  of  honor,  did  South 
Carolina  engage  in  the  common  conflict,  though  of  all 
these  British  dependencies  the  most  acceptable,  com 
mercially,  at  that  time  to  the  home  government.  With 
greater  ardor  than  Virginia,  and  hence  less  fitted  for 
leadership  than  inspiration,  she  threw  herself  into  the 
Revolutionary  struggle,  uncalculating,  as  she  has  al 
ways  been,  in  self-sacrifice  and  devotion.  South  Caro 
lina  was  one  of  the  younger  and  less  populous  of  our 
colonies,  while  Virginia  was  the  oldest  of  them  all, 
and  had  then  the  most  inhabitants. 

With  Massachusetts,  on  the  other  hand,  as  with  her 
near  New  England  neighbors  generally,  rebellion  was 
the  result  rather  of  reason  and  calculation — of  long 

'II  Benjamin  Franklin's  Works,  232. 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    303 

irritation  under  commercial  and  industrial  constraints 
decidedly  injurious  to  her  native  interests;  and  of  that 
innate  dislike,  moreover,  of  Crown  and  Parliament, 
which  had  sent  Puritan  roundheads,  dissenters  in  poli 
tics  and  religion,  so  many  out  of  caste  and  favor  in 
their  old  homes,  to  work  out  their  salvation  in  the  re 
mote  wilds  of  a  new  world.  For  New  Englanders  had 
crossed  the  ocean,  not  from  love  of  romance  or  adven 
ture,  not  to  amass  riches,  but  rather  to  wrest  a  living 
from  stingy  nature,  while  experimenting  in  civil  and 
religious  institutions  after  their  own  ideals  of  life. 
With  a  sterile  soil  to  cultivate,  they  added  to  agricul 
ture  the  pursuits  of  fishing  and  navigation;  they  de 
veloped  an  extensive  commerce,  upon  their  own  capital 
or  as  factors,  and  were  pushing  and  persevering.  Though 
Britons,  and  rural  Britons  withal,  in  many  traits;  in 
disposition  tenacious  each  of  his  own;  jealous,  per 
haps  encroaching;  not  easily  adaptable  to  those  whose 
ways  and  habits  of  life  differed  from  their  own;  they 
tended  strongly  among  their  own  set  to  civil  and  relig 
ious  equality.  Massachusetts,  for  her  own  part,  never  for 
gave  the  mother  country  for  cancelling  her  first  charter 
and  reducing  a  commonwealth,  once  almost  indepen 
dent,  to  a  province  ruled  by  a  royal  governor  and  care 
fully  watched.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island — the 
latter  founded  by  the  man  whom  Massachusetts  had 
harshly  banished  in  those  earlier  days — enjoyed  self- 
government  largely  by  the  king's  favor,  and  chose 
executives,  such  as  Massachusetts  herself  had  been  de 
prived  of  choosing.  New  Hampshire  was  a  junior 
Massachusetts,  with  less  of  the  urban  polish,  less 
capital. 

With  the  middle  section  of  United  America,  colonial 
growth  and  founding  had  differed  much  from  either 


304  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

New  England  or  the  South.  New  York  and  the 
Jerseys  were  early  settled  by  Dutchmen,  Swedes  and 
others  from  Continental  Europe;  and  here,  in  prosper 
ous  provinces,  with  the  British  element  at  length  pre 
dominating,  was  seen  in  course  of  time  a  promiscuous 
population,  always,  on  the  whole,  more  immediately 
interested  in  their  own  personal  advancement  and  fam 
ily  fortunes  than  in  politics,  and  somewhat  lacking  in 
public  spirit,  save  under  the  stress  and  special  direction 
of  external  leaders.  Pennsylvania,  too,  had  rapidly 
grown  in  numbers  as  a  great  feudal  or  patriarchal 
province,  whose  Quaker  proprietor  aimed  to  attract 
medley  crowds  of  settlers,  from  Continental  Europe 
as  well  as  Great  Britain ;  and  there,  once  more,  private 
and  plodding  schemes  of  life  and  personal  aggran 
dizement  were  more  apt  to  interest  the  average 
citizen  than  public  affairs  or  the  right  to  participate 
in  them. 


Englishmen  of  the  best  culture  and  polish  at  the 
present  day,  whatever  may  be  one's  innate  sense  of 
superiority,  are  found  courteous  and  affable  in  general 
intercourse;  and  in  that  respect  their  present  king  sets 
them  a  good  example.  But  the  typical  Englishman 
of  the  eighteenth  century  has  not  yet  vanished  from 
earth;  and  racial  characteristics  were  reproduced 
among  our  British-American  settlers  of  purer  stock 
while  the  colonial  condition  lasted.  Men  we  still 
meet  with  in  the  United  States  who  draw  out  in  rigid 
lengths  like  a  telescope,  according  to  the  presumable 
range  or  importance  of  objects  within  the  field  of  per 
sonal  vision.  A  well-bred  Britisher  of  the  eighteenth 
century  would  carefully  adjust  himself  toward  those 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    305 

with  whom  he  came  in  external  contact;  with  a  formal 
bow  to  this,  a  chilling  indifference  to  that  one,  trem 
ulous  and  effusive  warmth  of  devotion  to  a  third — 
great  sticklers,  all  of  them,  for  form  and  proper  eti 
quette,  on  occasions,  and  insistent  upon  exacting  from 
inferiors  their  own  individual  due.  At  the  root  of 
such  behavior  was  a  rigid  regard  for  the  proprieties  of 
life  and  a  self-respect  tending  to  pomp  and  disdain. 
The  English  church  catechism,  admirable  in  its  com- 
Xpend  for  the  common  folk,  lays  great  stress  upon  Chris 
tian  behavior:  "My  duty  towards  my  neighbor  is  to 
love  him  as  myself  and  to  do  unto  all  men  as  I  would 
they  should  do  unto  me" — the  golden  rule  first  of  all, 
as  it  ever  should  be,  and  admirable  for  all  times  and 
conditions.  But  what  follows  in  specification  is  for 
inferiors,  and  inculcates  a  submissive  deportment — 
to  honor  parents  and' the  civil  authority,  "to  submit 
myself  to  all  my  governors,  teachers,  spiritual  pastors 
and  masters,"  and  "to  order  myself  lowly  and  rever 
ently  to  all  my  betters."  But  how  shall  betters  com 
port  themselves  ?  How  far  ought  a  lord  to  condescend 
toward  those  of  low  estate?  On  that  point  the  cate 
chism  is  silent.  Perhaps  the  average  man  who  must 
reverence  reaches  his  own  selfish  solution  by  ex 
acting  submission  and  reverence  from  those  who 
look  up  to  him,  and  who  cannot  disdain  his  station 
in  life. 

In  practice,  each  Briton  took  his  recompense  as  he 
might.  The  fresh  collegian  who  played  the  fag  to  his 
elder  was  the  petty  tyrant  in  turn  with  another  class. 
In  Sheridan's  "Rivals,"  a  play  first  brought  out  in 
London  during  the  famous  year  of  Lexington  and 
Bunker  Hill,  the  master  abuses  his  valet,  while  the 
valet  consoles  himself  by  kicking  the  buttoned  boy  of 


306  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

all  work.  Novelists  who  describe  English  life  and 
manners  of  that  era — Fielding  and  Smollett  as  contem 
poraries,  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  the  retrospect,  and  the 
rest — seem  not  far  out  of  the  way,  when  they  show 
their  fellow-countryman  ready  to  browbeat  and  treat 
with  insolence  any  stranger  who  crosses  his  path;  but 
if  the  latter  but  stands  his  ground,  fights  with  fists, 
sword  or  cudgel,  and  gets  the  better  of  his  antagonist 
in  a  close  encounter,  he  wins  respect,  and  from  that 
vantage-ground  may  gain,  perchance,  a  life-long  friend 
ship.  For  surly  and  overbearing  as  old  John  Bull 
might  show  himself  on  a  first  and  casual  acquaintance, 
purpling  with  pride,  and  mottled  over  with  prejudices 
like  pimples  against  him  who  bore  no  letters  of  intro 
duction,  he  appreciates  success,  especially  when  he  may 
himself  profit  by  courting  the  successful ;  and  he  learns, 
however  awkwardly,  to  become  gracious,  friendly, 
flattering,  if  only  he  may  hold  his  lead.  Such,  at  least, 
was  the  typical  Englishman  in  the  age  of  our  Revolu 
tion  and  the  eighteenth  century. 


But  America,  as  I  have  suggested,  was  complex, 
composite — its  nature  dashed  in  destination  with  the 
blood  of  many  other  Caucasian  peoples,  despite  a  pure 
Anglo-Saxon  lineage.  Here  in  the  broad  wilderness 
of  this  new  world  was  ample  field  afforded  for  new 
and  varying  manners,  for  a  new  political  experiment; 
and  if  this  earlier  colonizing  age  still  kept  somewhat  to 
social  inequalities,  as  in  Europe,  anything  indigenous 
like  monarchy  or  a  settled  nobility  with  ranks  and 
titles  had  long  since  proved  impossible.  Sooner  or 
later  in  aboriginal  America  the  crown  and  sceptre  must 
have  disappeared  as  symbols  of  public  authority.  For 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    307 

in  each  of  these  thirteen  colonies  the  lower  House,  or 
legislature,  and  popular  representation  had  burst 
forth  for  a  local  ascendancy;  in  more  than  one  colony 
the  people  chose  their  own  executive,  while  in  others 
jealousy  of  home  rule  was  strong,  because  a  cor 
responding  right  of  choice  was  denied  them.  To  be 
sure,  there  was  aristocracy  in  America,  in  that  eigh 
teenth  century,  and  much  of  it;  but  the  milder  British 
type  of  Whig  had  more  real  influence  here  than  that 
of  Tory  in  such  a  set.  Yet  Toryism  ruled  then  in 
Great  Britain  for  the  most  part,  and,  indeed,  while 
George  III.  survived;  and  as  late  as  1815  an  Anglican 
bishop  said  before  an  assenting  House  of  Peers  that 
he  knew  not  what  the  mass  of  the  people  of  any 
country  had  to  do  with  the  laws  except  to  obey 
them. 

It  was  characteristic  of  our  colonial  age  that,  at  all 
events,  decent  people,  even  in  a  large  town  or  city,  had 
a  speaking  acquaintance  with  one  another,  whatever 
might  be  the  constraint  upon  a  familiar  social  inter 
course.  A  stranger  on  the  streets  was  at  once  pointed 
out.  And  people  in  the  same  social  set  mingled  un 
ceremoniously  in  company,  with  their  herds  of  sons 
and  daughters.  Yet  the  line  of  social  demarcation  was 
pretty  strongly  drawn  while  America  lived  under  the 
king;  and  even  in  the  smaller  towns  and  rural  neigh 
borhoods  each  household  knew  and  kept  its  place,  with 
little,  comparatively,  of  that  envious  rivalry  which  set 
in  afterwards  with  the  Republic.  Patricians  took  largely 
the  social  lead  and  their  sons  inherited  an  influence. 
Even  in  politics,  while  families  were  so  large  and 
united,  as  well  as  localized,  family  connections  and 
influence  must  have  counted  for  much,  and  the  voters 
and  managers  showed  their  sense  of  the  fact. 


308  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

Tradesmen  were  identified  in  most  of  these  com 
munities  by  their  dress  and  submissive  manners, 
though  self-respecting  and  strongly  disposed  to  self- 
improvement.  To  such  applied  the  saying,  "It  is  bet 
ter  to  be  well-remembered  than  well  born ;"  for  men  in 
many  of  our  thirteen  colonies  rose  from  humble  be 
ginnings  to  be  public  leaders  in  the  great  constructive 
work  of  the  age;  and  it  was  to  the  lasting  renown  of 
their  social  patrons  that  men  of  such  sterling  worth 
and  character  were  encouraged  to  work  their  way 
upward  as  good  citizens  and  co-operate  in  plans  for 
the  public  good.  Yet,  as  a  general  rule,  fathers  and 
sons  accepted  alike  the  condition  to  which  they  were 
born,  and  for  the  present  were  content  with  the  dress 
and  manners  belonging  to  it.  Such  a  state  of  things 
must  have  tended  to  free,  simple  and  unconstrained 
intercourse  on  matters  of  mutual  interest,  without  the 
fear  of  compromising  one's  visiting  acquaintance  or 
family  alliances.1 

Historians  tell  us  that  only  one-fifth  of  the  people  of 
all  these  colonies  had  in  1775  some  other  language  than 
the  English  for  their  mother  tongue.2  Under  such  a 
condition,  British  ideas  and  British  institutions  must 
have  strongly  prevailed  among  the  sires  of  our  Revo 
lution.  But  with  the  Union  of  our  own  times  it  is  far 
different ;  for  this  broad  country  long  since  became  the 
general  home  and  refuge  of  the  oppressed  of  all 

Mechanics,  we  are  told,  wore  almost  everywhere  their  leather 
aprons  on  week  days;  and  the  red  flannel  jacket  and  cheap  plush 
or  leather  breeches  were  other  accepted  badges  of  inferiority. 
"Leather-apron  Club"  was  a  term  applied  by  Philadelphia's  upper 
class,  perhaps  to  Franklin's  Junto,  and  certainly  in  scorn  of  up 
start  commoners  emerging  into  influence. 

Immigrants  from  France,  Sweden,  Holland  and  Germany,  in 
relative  order. 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    309 

Europe;  and  a  most  competent  authority  lately  esti 
mates  that  at  least  one  half  of  our  population  to-day, 
instead  of  one-fifth,  were  born  where  a  language  not 
English  was  spoken.1  The  twentieth  century  will 
hardly  run  its  course  with  the  United  States  rejoined 
to  Great  Britain,  in  any  race  alliance  against  the  other 
powers  of  the  earth. 


America,  earlier  even  than  the  Revolutionary  War, 
had  attracted  the  attention  of  seers  and  sages  in  the 
Old  World,  and  omens  abounded  of  its  coming  great 
ness.  In  such  books  as  Charles  Sumner's  "Prophetic 
Voices,"  we  may  see  quoted,  nearly  a  century  later,  the 
choicest  of  those  predictions  of  rising  glory  and  illus 
trious  empire  which  Saxon  denizens  of  a  new  world 
were  destined  to  fulfil.  The  verses  of  Cowley  and 
Bishop  Berkeley  are  still  to  us  an  inspiration,  as  they 
were  to  our  forefathers.  Very  close,  moreover,  to  the 
date  of  our  momentous  struggle,  the  versatile  Lord 
Kames  of  Scotland  wrote,  in  1774,  in  one  of  his  vol 
umes  of  speculative  prose  upon  the  history  of  mankind : 
"Our  North  American  colonies  are  in  a  flourishing  con 
dition,  increasing  rapidly  in  population  and  opulence. 
The  colonists  have  the  spirit  of  a  free  people  and  are 
inflamed  with  patriotism.  Their  population  will  equal 
Britain  and  Ireland  in  less  than  a  century;  and  they 
will  then  be  a  match  for  the  mother  country,  if  they 
choose  to  be  independent."  This  passage  was  among 
those  cited  by  Americans  as  an  incitement  to  fulfil  the 
presage.  To  be  sure,  the  contest  for  independence, 
here  prophesied  as  though  far  off,  was  actually  quite 
close  at  hand ;  nor  did  Lord  Kames  forecast  rightly  the 

"U.  S.  Labor  Report,  1901  (Carroll  D.  Wright). 


310  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

result  of  revolution  to  these  colonies.  "They  will  not 
incline,"  he  predicts,  "to  a  kingly  government;  but 
neither  will  they  unite,  like  the  Dutch  or  Swiss,  since 
each  colony  is  already  prepared  for  its  own  republican, 
government  by  merely  dropping  the  governor  who  rep 
resents  the  Crown."  There  was,  indeed,  such  an  ele 
ment  here  at  work,  the  centrifugal  of  State  pride;  but 
a  countervailing  force  operated  to  combine  when  com 
mon  grievances  and  a  common  danger  roused  colonies 
so  happily  alike  in  customs  and  institutions.  Ameri 
can  independence  became  worth  achieving,  because 
with  independence  came  a  lasting  and  comprehensive 
union. 

Whether  our  illustrious  Scotchman  drew  his  inspi 
ration  from  immediate  observers  in  these  distant  de 
pendencies  I  shall  not  inquire,  but  certain  it  is  that  a 
native-born  American  no  less  famous  than  Franklin 
had  imparted  to  him  his  own  ideas  more  than  ten 
years  earlier. '  "I  have  long  been  of  opinion,"  writes 
he  to  Lord  Kames  in  1760,  "that  the  foundations  of 
future  grandeur  and  stability  to  the  British  Empire 
lie  in  America;  that  those  foundations  are  broad  and 
strong  enough  to  support  the  greatest  political  struc 
ture  that  human  wisdom  ever  yet  erected."1  These 
words  were  penned  while  Franklin  was  at  heart  a  loyal 
Briton  and  planned  for  America's  development  in  full 
allegiance.  Six  years  later,  when  he  visited  Germany 
with  a  friend  and  made  a  hasty  tour  of  its  chief  cities 
and  universities,  he  met  at  Gottingen  the  Biblical  ex 
pert  Michaelis,  who  in  course  of  a  dinner  conversation 
expressed  a  belief  he  had  lately  stated  to  some  London 
friends,  that  the  American  colonies  would  one  day 
shake  themselves  loose  from  England.  Franklin  an- 
TO  Benjamin  Franklin's  Work,  39. 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    311 

swered  earnestly,  "Then  you  were  mistaken;  the 
Americans  have  too  much  love  for  their  mother  coun 
try."  "I  believe  it,"  responded  the  German  professor, 
"but  almighty  interest  would  soon  outweigh  that  love 
or  extinguish  it  altogether."  Franklin  could  not  deny 
that  this  might  be,  but  he  still  pronounced  a  secession 
impossible.1 

I 

It  is  thus  that  men,  the  most  profound  and  broad- 
reaching  of  all  ages,  live,  after  all,  from  year  to  year, 
unaware  of  the  broad  undercurrent  that  bears  them  on 
ward  in  logical  consequences  to  the  destiny  they  some 
how  comprehend,  but  cannot  yet  recognize  as  ap 
proaching.  Interest  was  the  great  irresistible  force 
that  must  in  time  have  detached  us  from  the  mother 
country,  to  gain  ascendancy  in  this  continent  for  a  new 
lead  and  new  ideas  of  government.  Hence,  the  pres 
sure  of  compulsion  by  the  King  and  Parliament, 
at  a  time  highly  opportune  for  resistance,  made  Eng 
land's  conquest  from  France  a  conquest  in  effect  for 
American  benefit.  The  revenge  of  France,  in  aiding 
children  to  rebel  against  the  parent,  impelled  us  on 
ward  to  freedom ;  and  so  was  it  with  French  influence, 
a  quarter  century  later,  when  Napoleon,  with  a  new 
hatred  of  England,  sold  us  Louisiana,  and  so  advanced 
our  dominion  of  this  continent  another  stage,  to  the 
base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Though  the  strongest  of  political  bonds,  the  filial  one, 
united  these  colonies  with  Great  Britain  in  early  times, 
it  was  fatal  to  the  maintenance  of  British  sovereignty 
here  that  British  people  at  home  were  indifferent  to 

'J.  G.  Rosengarten's  "Franklin  in  Germany,"  citing  from  the 
"Biography  of  Michaelis." 


312  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

the  welfare  of  these  colonies,  while,  with  British  rulers 
and  ministry,  the  interest  and  wishes  of  a  few  London 
merchants  and  financiers  had  more  influence  than 
thousands  of  colonial  subjects  could  muster,  so  far 
away.  It  was  thus  that  the  African  slave  trade  was 
kept  up  in  these  colonies,  supplying  a  labor  market  for 
the  sake  of  plantation  products,  quite  in  disregard  of 
all  humane  disposition  here  to  check  it.  Once,  when 
a  jail  distemper  was  brought  over  and  spread  through 
Virginia  by  the  ships  transporting  convicts,  so  that 
many  innocent  people  died  in  consequence,  Virginia's 
House  of  Burgesses  passed  a  law  obliging  vessels  that 
arrived  from  Europe  with  the  distemper  to  go  into 
quarantine.  But  two  merchants  in  London,  con 
tractors  in  that  importation,  objecting  that  such  a  re 
quirement  would  increase  the  expenses  of  their  voyage, 
the  Virginia  law  was  disapproved  by  the  home  govern 
ment  and  failed  of  effect.  If  such  is  sovereign  power 
exercised  from  across  the  seas,  where  children  and 
colonists  have  been  largely  indulged  with  representa 
tive  assemblies  of  their  own  and  with  suffrage  and  self- 
rule  in  local  affairs,  what  must  that  sovereignty  be 
when  the  millions  ruled  are  of  a  different  race,  deemed 
inferior? 

It  is  not  so  much  from  any  general  intent  to  op 
press,  as  from  the  innate  covetousness  of  a  few  and 
the  heednessless  of  the  many,  that  distant  dependen 
cies  are  ruled  despotically,  not  having  a  voice  or  a 
vote  in  the  home  government  which  lays  imperious 
burdens  upon  them.  Without  steam  appliances  for 
travel  by  land  or  sea,  without  the  ligature  of  electric 
cables  or  telegraph  wires,  our  thirteen  subject  colonies 
were  in  1776  farther,  much  farther,  in  effect,  from 
Europe,  from  their  sovereign  King  and  Parliament, 


SYMPTOMS  OF  INDEPENDENCE    313 

though  close  tos  this  Atlantic  shore,  than  are  dwellers 
across  our  continent  at  the  present  day  who  border  the 
Pacific.  But  practical  distance  in  any  case  makes  in 
difference  even  among  the  well  disposed  of  an  external 
empire.  Franklin,  while  in  London  in  1773,  noted  as 
the  great  defect  of  the  British  people  he  met  a  want  of 
attention  to  what  was  passing  in  so  remote  a  country 
as  America — an  unwillingness  to  read  about  them,  and 
a  disposition  to  postpone  even  what  they  would  at  last 
have  inevitably  to  consider.  And  with  all  this  igno 
rance  and  indifference  went,  as  he  observed,  a  pur- 
blindness  of  comprehension  among  the  ruling  set ;  they 
failed  to  comprehend  that  America  would  act  except 
from  a  sordid  self-interest;  and  a  mere  threepence  on 
a  pound  of  tea — a  beverage  of  which  one  consumed 
perhaps  ten  pounds  a  year — seemed  to  them  an  impo 
sition  too  trivial  to  be  resisted.  Yet,  as  Burke  clearly 
perceived,  a  love  of  freedom  was  the  predominating 
feature  of  these  far-off  Americans,  scions  of  the  Saxon 
race,  and  hence  these  colonies  would  become  suspicious, 
restive  and  intractable,  whenever  they  saw  efforts  made 
at  home  to  deprive  them  of  freedom  by  force  or  chi- 
cancery.  "I  think  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain," 
wrote  Washington  in  1774,  "hath  no  more  right  to 
put  their  hands  in  my  pocket,  without  my  consent,  than 
I  have  to  put  my  hands  into  yours  for  money."  Sam 
uel  Adams  advanced  the  same  idea;  and  he  added, 
in  1780,  "when  a  whole  people  say  we  will  be  free, 
it  is  difficult  to  demonstrate  that  they  are  in  the 
wrong."1 

Whenever,  then,  it  came  to  compulsion  of  these  col 
onies  distance  would  prove  a  constant  thwart  to  des 
potism.    "With  three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  between 
*I  Chastellux  Travels. 


3H  AMERICANS  OF  1776 

you  and  them,"  said  Burke,  "no  contrivance  can  pre 
vent  the  effect  of  this  distance  in  weakening  govern 
ment.  Divine  justice  interposes  to  rebuke  man's 
imperial  arrogance  and  says,  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go, 
and  no  farther.' >?1 

*II  Burke's  Works,  120. 


INDEX 


Adams,  Herbert  B.,  204,  205. 
Adams,  John,  127,  149,  220,  289. 
Adams,  John  Q.,  149. 
Adams,  Samuel,  9,   52,  86,  97, 

220,  242,  313. 
Alston,  Washington,  171. 
Amesbury,  63. 
Annapolis,  113,  175. 
Appleton,  Nathan,  229. 

Baltimore,  53,  175,  178-180,  243. 
Baltimore,  Lord,  49. 
Bancroft,  George,  I. 
Bates,  Mr.,  in. 
Berkeley,    Bishop,   309. 
Berkeley,   Governor,   199,  218. 
Berkeley,   Mr.,  270. 
Bernard,  Governor,  220. 
Blackstone,  Sir  William,  134. 
Blackstone,  William,  245. 
Boston,  9,  19,  26,  55,  57,  62,  67, 

75,  105,  108,  175,  177-180,  189, 

197. 

Botetourt,  Lord,  45. 
Boylston,  Nicholas,  230. 
Brooklyn,   112. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  267. 
Brown  College,  216,  226. 
Buckminster,  Joseph,  222. 
Bunker  Hill,  130,  169,  305. 
Burgoyne,  General,  221,  300. 
Burke,  Edmund,  182,  260,  268, 

271,  285,  313,  314. 
Byles,  Mather,  228. 


Canada,  4,  5. 
Charles  II.,   10. 
Charleston,  n,  29,  53. 
Chastellux,  Marquis  de,  6,  41, 

51,  97,  225,  226,  229,230,237, 

263,  313- 
Chatham,  Earl  of.     (See  Pitt, 

William.) 
Chicago,  3. 
Clap,  Thomas,  232. 
Concord,  63. 

Copley,  John  S.,  86,  170. 
Cowley,  Abraham,  309. 
Craigie  house,  51. 
Crawford,  Thomas,  172. 
Curran,  John  P.,  13. 

Dartmouth  College,  211,  226. 
Delancey,  Governor,  114. 
Dickinson,  John,  129,  149. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  128,  133,  222. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  219. 
Eliot,  Rev.  Dr.,  251. 
Edes,   Ben.,   152. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,   126,  246. 

Fielding,  Henry,  306. 

Fishkill,  50. 

Fiske,  John,  184. 

France,  4-6,  311. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  17,  39, 
64,  69,  70,  74,  89,  101,  116, 
127,  138,  150,  164,  176,  189, 
204,  205,  253,  256,  263,  301, 
3io,  313- 


INDEX 


Freemasonry,  264. 
Freneau,  Philip,  128. 

Garrick,  David,  in. 
George  III.,  7,  90,  165,  307. 
Gottingen,  310. 
Greenough,  Horatio,  172. 
Grund,  196. 

Hale,  Nathan,  223. 
Hallam,  Lewis,  113. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  63,  129, 

227. 
Hancock,  John,  52,  86,  131,  141, 

220,  231. 

Hancock,  Thomas,  177,  231. 
Harrison,  Benjamin,  223. 
Hartford,   61,   64. 
Harvard  College,  70,  100,  106, 

132,   189,  207,  216,  217,  219- 

222,  229-236,  243,  247,  255. 
Henry,  Patrick,  2,  100,  127,  239. 
Hersey,  Ezekiel,  230. 
Hopkins,  Stephen,  70. 
Holyoke,  Edward,  219,  222. 
Houdon,   172. 
Howard,  John,  182. 
Hutchinson,  Thomas,  128,  144. 

Jay,  John,  227. 

Jefferson,    Thomas,    100,    106, 

127,  135,  173,  209,  223,  263. 
Jerrold,  Douglas,  272. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  260. 
Junto,  78,  256,  308. 

Kames,  Lord,  309,  310. 

Kings  (Columbia)  College,  216, 

226. 
Knox,  Henry,  122. 


Langdon,  Samuel,  222. 
Lexington,  22,  305. 
Livingston,  William,  223. 
Locke,  Samuel,  222,  229,  232. 
Lyman,  Phineas,  301. 
Lynn,  88. 

Macaulay,   Thomas   B.,    I. 
Madison,  Bishop,  119. 
Madison,  James,  149,  209,  224, 

226. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  13. 
Marblehead,  175,  181. 
Marshall,  John,  223. 
Mather,    Cotton   and   Increase, 

126. 

Mather,  Samuel,  229. 
McCauley,  Catherine,   in. 
McKinley,  William,  4. 
Mein,  John,  122,  256. 
Michaelis,  310. 
Monroe,  James,  209,  224. 
Monticello,  52. 
Mount  Vernon,  51,  78. 
Murray,  John,  275. 

Napoleon,  260,  311. 

New  England,  3,  299. 

New  Haven  (see  Yale  Col 
lege),  26. 

New  York  City,  3,  15,  19,  25, 
30,  56,  57,  67,  75,  177,  266. 

Ogilvie,  Mr.,   131. 

Otis,  James,  64,  79,  127. 

Paine,  Thomas,  129,  133. 
Parkman,    Francis,    I. 
Peale,  Charles  W.,  171. 
Penn,  William,  49. 
Pennsylvania  College,  205,  216, 
225,  231. 


INDEX 


Pepys,  Samuel,  10. 
Peters,  William,  228. 
Philadelphia,  3,   16,   19,  24,  28, 
53,  55,  56,  64,  66,  73,  85,  105, 

120,    176,    178. 

Phillips,  John,  228. 
Pickering,  Thomas,  220. 
Pitt,  William,  7,  165,  170. 
Plymouth,  48. 
Portsmouth,  81,  82. 
Princeton  College,  216,  225,  255. 
Propert,  Mr.,  108. 
Providence,  28,  39. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  231. 

Ramsay,  David,  186. 
Randolph,  Peyton,  223. 
Richardson,  Samuel,  41. 
Richmond,   252. 
Rittenhouse,  David,  263. 
Revere,  Paul,  79,  164. 
Rochambeau,  Count,  243. 
Rush,  William,  172. 

Scott,  Walter,  306. 
Selby,  Mr.,  108. 
Sheridan,  Richard  B.,  305. 
Smith,  William,  225,  228-231. 
Smollett,  Tobias  G.,  306. 
Somerset  case,  13. 
Sons  of  Liberty,  8,  266. 
Springs,    Stafford,    191. 
Springs,  Sulphur,  192. 
Stavers,  Mr.,  81. 
Stiles,  Ezra,  223. 
Stuyvesant,  Peter,  190. 


Tammany,  106,  264. 
Thomas,  Isaiah,  143. 
Thucydides,  6. 
Tory,  8,  34,  76,  289,  307. 
Trumbull,  John,  128,  170. 
Trumbull,  Jonathan,  220,  222. 
Tyler,  John,  223. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Patroon,  49. 

Warren,  Joseph,  79,  265. 
Washington,    George,    20,    78, 

99,  123,  129,  131,  141,  168,  190, 

209,  223,  229,  251,  252,  261, 

265,  313- 

Wesley,  Charles  and  John,  245. 
West,  Benjamin,  170,   171,  177. 
Wheelock,  Eleazar,  227. 
Whig,  8,  34,  76,  287,  289,  307- 
Whitefield,  George,  245,  301. 
William  and  Mary  College,  45, 

206,  216,  218,  223,  224,  288, 

290. 
Williamsburg,  9,  24,  45,  55,  79, 

106,  113,  212,  218. 
Wilson,  Rachel,  250. 
Winthrop,  John.  65,  229. 
Witherspoon,    John,    225,    226, 

228,  229,  246. 
Wooster,  David,  223. 
Wright,  Mrs.,   HI. 
Wythe,  Goorge,  223. 

Yale  College,  207,  216,  217,  231- 

236. 
Yankee,  299. 


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